-^-^ 




Copyright ]^^. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



WORKS OF ELLEN H. RICHARDS 

PUBLISHED BY 

JOHN WILEY & SONS 
43-45 East Nineteenth Street, New York 



Conservation by Sanitation. 

Air and Water Supply; Disposal of Waste. (Includ- 
ing a Laboratory Guide for Sanitary Engineers.] 
8vo, xii + 305 pages. Illustrated. Cloth, $2.50. 

Laboratory Notes on Industrial Water Analysis: A 
Survey Course for Bngrineers. 
8vo, 62 pages. Cloth, 50c net. 

The Cost of Cleanness. 

12mo, V + 109 pages. Cloth. $1.00. 

The Cost of Living: as Modified by Sanitary Science. 
Third Edition, Revised. 12mo. 164 pages. Cloth. 
$1.00. 

Air, Water, and Food; From a Sanitary Standpoint. 
By Ellen H. Richards and Alpheus G. Woodman, 
Assistant Professor of Food Analysis, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology. Third Edition, Revised 
and Enlarged. 8vo. 278 pages. Cloth. $2.00. 

The Cost of Food : A Study in Dietaries. 
12mo. 161 pages. Cloth. $1.00. 

The Dietary Computer. 

By Ellen H. Richards, Instructor in Sanitary Chem- 
istry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, assisted 
by Louise Harding Williams. $1.50 net. Pamphlet 
separately, $1.00 net. 

The Cost of Shelter. 

12mo. vi + 136 pages. Illustratsd. Cloth. $1.00. 

'• Cost of Living: " Series. 

1. Cost of Living. 2. Cost of Food. 3. Cost of 
Shelter. 4. Cost of Cleanness. 12mo. Cloth. 4 
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Published by WHITCOMB & BARROWS 
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The Chemistry of Coolcing: and Cleaning:. 

By Ellen H. Richards and S. Maria Elliott. 158 

pages. Cloth. $1.00. 
Food Materials and their Adulterations. 

183 pages. Cloth. $1.00. 
Home Sanitation. 

Revised Edition. Edited by Ellen H. Richards and 

Marion Talbot. 85 pages. Paper. 25c. 
Plain Words about Food. 

The Rumford Leaflets. Illustrated. 176 pages. 

Cloth. $1.00. 
First Lessons on Food Diet. 

52 pages. Cloth. 30c net. 
The Art of Right=Livin8:. 

50 pages. Cloth. 50c net. 

Sanitation in Daily Life. 

82 pages. Cloth. 65c. net. 




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CONSERVATION BY 
SANITATION 



AIR AND WATER SUPPLY 
DISPOSAL OF WASTE 



[INCLUDING A LABORATORY GUIDE 
FOR SANITARY ENGINEERS] 



BY 

ELLEN H. RICHARDS 




NEW YORK 

JOHN WILEY & SONS 

London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited 

1911 









Copyright, iqis 

BY 

ELLEN H. RICHARDS 



JStanbopc ipress 

H. GILSON COMPANY 
BOSTON. U.S.A. 



CCI.A^^80233 



TO 

G. M. H. AND I. F. H. 

A remark of appreciation accidentally coming to my ears many 
years ago gave me courage at a critical moment in a difiScult path. 

A daily companionship of twenty years sustained often weary 
hands. The translation of crude and hasty suggestions into effective 
action is the greatest satisfaction in hfe. 



FOREWORD 

THE SPIRIT IN WHICH THE PROBLEMS OF MODERN CIVILIZA- 
TION, ESPECIALLY THOSE IN RELATION TO AIR 
SUPPLY AND VENTILATION AND WATER SUPPLY 
AND WASTE DISPOSAL, ARE TO BE 
APPROACHED AND SOLVED 

The sanitary engineer has a treble duty for the next few years 
of civic awakening. Having the knowledge, he must be a leader 
in developing works and plants for state and municipal improve- 
ment, at the same time he is an expert in their employ. But he 
must be more; as a health officer he must be a teacher of the 
people to show them why all these things are to be. The slow- 
ness with which practicable betterments have been adopted 
among the rank and file is, partly at least, due to the separation 
of functions, of specialization, and partly to the exclusiveness of 
agents in the work. 

The individualism of the nineteenth century extended to the 
domain of hygiene. The physician looked after the interest 
of his patient, not of his patient's neighbors, and the mass of 
the people went their own individual way without giving him 
a chance until the mischief was done. The advocates of Pre- 
ventive Medicine, among whom were some of the most eminent 
physicians, found stony fields for the seed they wished to sow. 
The engineer had to plow this field, lift out the stones, and pre- 
pare the ground. The application of sanitary principles used 
for the benefit of the people with the same energy and business 
sense as has been used for the profit of the individual, will soon 
prove that sanitation will pay as well as railroads and machine 
shops. 

Sanitation cannot be fully developed until capital employs the 
expert in both engineering and sanitation to plan for the masses 



vi FOREWORD 

of people who have not the means either financial or practical 
to live under such conditions as make for their own happiness 
and the State's wealth. Hence the new era we are entering 
upon demands a new training, a fresh point of view. It may 
be that fortunes will not come so readily to the engineer as 
they have come to the business promoter, but there will be hon- 
orable and well-paid employment. It is open to the sanitary 
engineering expert to do a service never before acceptable. 
Therefore this side of the professional training should be kept 
in mind. Knowledge vital to the health of the people should 
be made as accessible as possible at as little expense and trouble 
to them as may be. 

Here the paths of medical tradition and modern sanitation 
diverge. In spite of the early recognition of Preventive Medi- 
cine and State responsibility, that branch has not until now 
flourished in medical education. It is a question how far tra- 
dition hampers it in its future progress, but no tradition or 
precedent hampers sanitary engineering. As its name implies, 
it is all the wealth of engineering knowledge applied to sanitary 
measures. There must be added the idea of making available 
this knowledge as quickly and completely as possible, even if 
some of the application is premature. It is better to believe 
that all dirt is dangerous rather than to hold it of no conse- 
quence how thick the dirt lies. The engineer always uses a 
factor of safety. 

It was better to disinfect needlessly than to suffer longer the 
unchecked spread of disease. So much of the past work done 
under the impulse of half knowledge or even under misappre- 
hension of causes has been of value educationally that it cannot 
be regretted. 

It should not be counted against the sanitarian that he cried 
fire when there was only smoke and sometimes even only dust 
with no danger of fire. It caused a looking after danger spots, 
and was much better than the old medical practice, which usu- 
ally locked the stable door too late. 

Let the education of the people go on through mistakes, 



FOREWORD Vii 

through excess of zeal, if it must, but go on all the time it must. 
As experience accumulates, wiser means will be found. Let the 
sanitary engineer seize his opportunity to lead in the apphca- 
tion of all knowledge to the betterment of living conditions. 
Let him not forget the need of teaching the people the value of 
his services to the commimity as a teacher as well as an expert. 



PREFACE 

The experience of twenty years since the first class of sanitary 
engineers was graduated in 1890 has led to the compilation of 
these pages from the notes prepared annually for each succeed- 
ing class. The work of arousing the intelligent humanitarian is 
done. The economist and the sociologist are to be confirmed 
in their awakening interest, but too popular movements are to be 
deprecated in the beginning of any science. 

Sanitation has broadened to a substantial base and there is 
room for a treatment of the subject from several sides. This 
volume is primarily a laboratory guide, with resume's of the 
principles given in the lecture course which accompanies the 
laboratory, made at the same time readable, it is hoped, to 
the engineer and health officer who may not have had as full lab- 
oratory training. It is not a complete guide for the untrained 
practitioner; it assumes familiarity with both the bacteriological 
and the chemical laboratory and access to an engineering library. 
It is stimulating rather than complete. As one of the youngest 
divisions of engineering, the subject is barely fledged, not full- 
fledged by any means. The school course has been loaded with 
details not agreeing with the bewildering surroundings of the 
actual plant. The student recently graduated is apt to become 
confused in his work or abnormally confident in his newly 
acquired information. 

If the engineer can leave school with enthusiasm for his work, 
with a vocabulary and list of references of recent date he will 
make his way. If he has a sense of background behind him, a 
knowledge that these subjects have a past history and will have 
a future even after he has done with them, he will be in a temper 
to do good work for his time, not too confident on the one hand 
and not too pessimistic on the other to be of use. It is this 
attitude of moderated enthusiasm that we hope to foster. 



X PREFACE 

The thanks of the author are due to the classes who have 
been the subjects of experimental notes; to Miss Mabel Babcock 
for her spirited interpretation of a sketch of American unsani- 
tary habits; to Miss LilHan Jameson for careful proof reading; 
and especially to Mr. Royce W. Gilbert, who has criticized step 
by step with great judgment and insight, and without whose 
aid the volume could not have been prepared. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



PART I ^ 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. — Air a Neglected Resource i 

Comfort, Duty, Profit. Modern Needs due to Tighter Houses 
and Better Food. 

II. — Standards of Air Supply 6 

Domestic and Public, Factories, Trades. 

III. — Wholesome Air, axd the Sanitary Inspector ii 



IV. — Water Sltplies 19 

A. Development from Ancient Times. 

B. The Modern Water Works. 

C. The Indicated Future. 

V. — The Development of the Sanitary Idea as Indicated by the 

Municipalization of Water Works 46 

Wholesome Water the People's Right. 

VI. — Economic and Sanitary Efficiency of Water Works 60 

A. Standards of Purity. 

B. The Water Assay, the Engineers' Laboratory. 

VII. — Protection of Water Supplies as a Conservation of Natural 

Resources 85 

Implies (i) Clean Soil and Prevention of Fouling. 

(2) Husbanding of Rainfall by Storage. 
Watersheds and Prospecting for Additional Supplies. 
The Inspector's and Prospector's Outfit or the Field Kit. 

VIII. — The Regeneration (Renovation) of a Spoiled Watershed .. in 
Effect of Storage. 

Office of Oxygen Dissolved and of Green Plants. 
Color, Odors, and Tastes in Water. 



Xll TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

IX. — The Interdependence of Town and Country 137 

Rural Sanitation as Affecting the Health of the City as well as 
of the Country. 

X. — Filtration, when Resorted to, how Efficient 151 

Sterilization, when Indicated. 
Underground or Natural Filtered Waters. 

XI. — The Ultimate Disposal of Wastes Liable to Contaminate 

Water Supplies 169 

Cremation (Garbage C, Animal C). 

Dilution (by Soil, by Good Water). 

Utilization (Land Absorption of Water and Nitrogen). 

XII. — Treatment of Various Wastes 203 

A. Dilution may be Sufi&cient for ^Esthetic Reasons. 

B. Chemical Treatment may be Needed for Sanitary Reasons. 

C. Biologic Treatment and Sand Filtration for Direct Potability. 

XIII. — The Community and the Individual 216 

The Education and the Position of the Sanitary Engineer in 
the Progress of Modern Sanitation. 



PART II 

One Laboratory Exercise on the Inspection of Ventilation 225 

Twelve Laboratory Exercises on the Examination of Water and 

Wastes 231 



CONSERVATION BY 
SANITATION 



CHAPTER I 

AIR: A NEGLECTED RESOURCE 

Comfort, Duty, Profit. Modern Needs Due to Tighter 
Houses, More Food and Closer Living 

Man has learned very slowly the condition of his own safe 
living. Of the three essentials, air, food, water, the air he 
breathes and is surrounded by, being invisible, is the least 
known of all. 

Before the time of Galen, B.C. 200, air was supposed to be 
carried in the body by the arteries. It was about 1553 before 
Servetus in his search for the connection between the breath of 
life and the soul discovered the circulation of air through the 
lungs and that the bright color of arterial blood was taken on 
there. He was burned at the stake for his unholy work. 

In 1668 the real ofhce of air was discovered by Mayow but 
was lost sight of for many years. 

Respiratory exchange and its physical and physiological rela- 
tion is of only recent scientific proof, and even now cannot be 
fully explained. 

It is not to be wondered at that to most persons the word air 
means very little. They are so used to taking air like other 
cosmical phenomena, "as it comes,'' that they are not conscious 
of the effect of different qualities of air upon their brains and 
bodies. It is only when they themselves are smitten with the 
more spectacular forms of disease caused by bad air, such as 
tuberculosis, and when a physician in whom they have confidence 



2 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

assures them that their only chance for hfe is to Hve out of 
doors, that they begin to reahze that the indoor air they have 
been taking must have been bad. 

To account for the effects of outdoor air, one theory after 
another has been propounded — such as ozone, aromatic essence 
from certain trees, dryness, dampness, rarity, density, freedom 
from earth exhalations, etc. It is one of the great advances of 
modern science to have discovered that just simple ordinary 
outdoor air is a most valuable health resource; that a balcony 
on a city street is a thousand times better than a room in a 
house closed for fear of drafts, curtained for fear of fading the 
furniture, and lighted by a lamp. 

The long delay in discovering that it was the mosquito and 
not the night air that brought malaria, caused the habit of 
closed windows in the country; the fear of burglars was added 
in the towns; and the cities grew up with the habits of the 
country; added to the small and smaller living spaces, until 
thousands of men, women, and children smothered in the prod- 
ucts of their own breathing. 

It is not too much to claim that only the application of the 
laws of physics and mechanics have proved the various early 
medical empirical theories insufhcient. 

It is free air, air in motion, that is needed. Motion is an 
essential factor in life. The still animal is dead matter. Living 
water is flowing water. Fresh air is air in motion; if the sun 
shines on it, so much the better. Confined air has an effect 
like wrapping up in cotton wool. On the other hand, moving 
air carries away with it the elements of discomfort — heat, mois- 
ture, CO2, odors; and, if from the right quarter, brings to us 
ozone, oxygen, freshness, dryness, and general stimulation. 

The engineer and the architect have been expected to provide 
all these advantages without cost because ''air is free"; they 
have only to draw their plans as they should be drawn, provide 
ducts, etc. Result: failure in a large number of cases. 

The time has arrived when the engineer and the architect 
must work together to uphold their professions. 



AIR: A NEGLECTED RESOURCE 3 

The pioneer held food, which was only to be had by the sweat 
f his brow, the most costly of his needs. Water required a 
little effort, either daily to bring it from the stream or spring, 
or once for all to pipe it to the house and barn, or to dig a well 
to serve his own and his grandchildren's needs. Air was free 
— in winter it was an enemy, even, to be kept out of the dwelling. 
Mankind's primitive habits linger long in the unconscious cere- 
bration of the race. 

A distinguished engineer wrote only a few years since: "Food 
is costly, air is free. If man had to work ... for air as he does 
for food, he would value it." 

Under the latest conditions of crowded modern living, taking 
account of space, fuel, etc., it is estimated that to supply a family 
with fresh air costs the householder about one-fourth as much 
as food, only he does not find it set down in his bill for rent 
(air space) or for fuel (air moving power, circulation). Air 
does not circulate in pipes in rooms as does water, but 
through the whole space; is not an item for which he pays 
when paying his car fare, or when he buys his theater tickets. 
Baseball grounds have no roofs and the air circulates freely; 
this, perhaps, gives that game considerable advantage over the 
theater. 

The cost of the present-day schoolhouse is enhanced 10 to 
15 per cent by the cost of the air supply, screened, washed, and 
circulated; cooled or heated, as the season demands. The city 
taxes contain hidden under other names charges for clean air, 
oil or water for streets — cleaners, smoke consumers, special ordi- 
nances on nuisances, etc. 

Clean ''fresh" air at a comfortable temperature is not free to 
a single city taxpayer. It is hardly attainable at any price to the 
lodger, the tenement dweller, the factory worker. 

The best that the law can do is to see that the confined air is 
not vitiated to an immediately dangerous extent. 

Contaminated air, affecting as it does the body processes, 
metabolism, acts as a slow poison first by reducing the body's 
resistance and thus allowing its various enemies to secure a 



4 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

foothold. It is generally understood to-day by investigators 
that no one or several substances found in '' bad air " act as an 
external poison, but that the danger lies in the interference 
with the normal body metabolism. Thus no one would think 
of calling heat a poison, and yet it affects the mechanism which 
regulates body temperature, the most important constant of 
Hv^ing tissue. Humidity acts indirectly in preventing that loss 
of heat which regulates body temperature. It has been esti- 
mated that 22.9 per cent of the loss of body heat is by water 
evaporated. This loss is increased by exercise twice or even 
three times, — from 935 grams H2O in twenty-four hours to 
2848 grams when working. 

Man cannot control the temperature of outside air, the amount 
of water it contains, or its pressure; to some extent the amount 
of impurity it contains may be controlled. Oiled streets and 
dustless pavements may be insisted on. The city should carry 
out its duty towards its citizens in the matter of clean air by 
keeping its streets free from dust and dirt — such as the grit 
from abrasions of the surface, ground-up droppings, iron dust 
from wheels and carts, bacteria from dried sputum, etc. — 
which would otherwise be lifted by the wind. 

For example, the State might be visualized as immersed in a 
great sea. Here and there a city is sending up great clouds of 
dust, smoke, and foreign gases which may be likened to city 
sewage rising from points at the bottom of the clear sea. Be- 
tween these great sources of pollution run connecting roads, 
boulevards, railways, each sending out all along its sinuous 
course dense currents of waste and contaminated air. Along 
these lines of pollution appear houses and factories, often emit- 
ting foul air themselves and completely surrounded by dense 
clouds of air sewage, only appearing to the view as sudden 
gusts blow the mass away. This sort of visualization will lead 
to the conclusion that even outside air is bad in the vicinity 
of cities. It is, but it is better for the most part than indoor 
air. A man living all his life in the open is said to be able to 
smell the bad air of a city the moment he steps inside its gates. 



AIR: A NEGLECTED RESOURCE 5 

We who live and smother in our own and our neighbors' exhala- 
tions grow accustomed to the stench. 

Out of doors in the daytime is not, however, for the workers 
of the world. Only the so-called leisure classes and workers in 
certain occupations, as agriculture, can enjoy that privilege. 
The work of the world is carried on indoors. Most people, 
whatsoever their occupation, can, however, with little trouble 
manage to approximately sleep out of doors. Almost any room 
having windows on two sides can be kept full of outside air at 
most seasons of the year. Just as windows wide open from top 
to bottom will convert an ordinary schoolroom into a model 
out-of-door school for the anaemic children of our big cities, so 
wide-open windows may, if properly arranged, convert an ordi- 
nary bedchamber into an out-of-door camp for the tuberculous. 

The difference between indoor and outdoor air is in small 
additions, chiefly odors and heat, and in stagnation or "close- 
ness " so that the layer of air next the skin is not changed 
rapidly enough for comfort. Overheating is the most common 
difference, and this makes the presence of products of respira- 
tion harmful. The Eskimo in his snow hut has the best absorb- 
ent in the melting ice. 

General discussion for improving the air in enclosed spaces: 

(i) Comfort: people will pay for it quicker, perhaps, than for 
sanitation. Example — theaters. 

(2) Duty of cities, to supply better air in the schoolhouses be- 
cause of effect on future citizens in the development of the race. 

(3) Profit: solid cash for owners of factories, etc., in increased 
capacities of workers. No humanitarian dream of duty, but a 
business proposition of increased income. 

This education of the people to the necessary cost in money 
(neither time nor strength can supply the want in case of air 
and water) of sanitary living is one of the duties, as well as 
privileges, of the sanitary engineer in his sociological relations 
and is the reason for this brief discussion in this place. 



CHAPTER II 

STANDARDS OF AIR SUPPLY 

Curve of Comfort 

Air in motion is necessary. When man put a fiat roof over 
his head and windows in the lower part of his room he began 
his downward career in health. Warm air rises into a cooler 
medium, and common sources of bad air give also warm air. 
Man's breath yields carbon dioxide, heat, and moisture; man's 
body adds heat, moisture, and odors. Lighting and heating, 
cooking, sweeping, dusting, even walking on the floor, especially 
if carpeted, each adds its quota. The resulting gaseous mixture 
would readily escape if an opening was left, but as it cools by 
contact with cold walls it sinks to envelop the occupants, 
deaden their senses, and force back into the body the refuse 
which freely moving air would carry away. Such at least is 
the engineer's working theory of house ventilation to-day. 

Satisfactory ventilation is the result of the action of several 
variables, chief of which are humidity, temperature, and carbon 
dioxide. Dust, escaping gas, other products of combustion than 
CO2, disagreeable odors from persons, clothing, etc., unsealed 
sewer traps, — all become more or less important factors at 
times. Many of these factors may be eliminated by cleanli- 
ness, and the engineer should insist that this extra demand upon 
the apparatus should be removed. 

Removal of carpets and upholstered furniture from public 
halls, or at least their cleansing by vacuum air-sweeping appa- 
ratus; floors and walls nonabsorbent and easily cleaned; air 
ducts smooth and freed from dust by sweeping; electric Hghting; 
absolutely tight joints in sewer and gas pipes, if insisted upon, 
would render the hfe of the ventilating expert more tolerable. 
The noxiousness of confined air is caused not only by accumu- 
lated CO2 but also by heat, by excessive humidity, by unpleas- 

6 



STANDARDS OF AIR SUPPLY 7 

ant odors, especially from the sebaceous, sudoriferous, and intes- 
tinal secretions. 

In the absence of a better indicator, lo parts in 10,000 CO2 
may mark the change to discomfort, because accompanied by the 
other factors. 

Processes of cooking and cleaning, and the appliances of heat- 
ing and Hghting, escape of ferrosilicon, unburned gases (CO,H, 
hydrocarbons), steam, each gives an increment of danger. 

The air of occupied spaces contains a greater or less amount 
of dust of both organic and inorganic nature. The organic par- 
ticles may be either hving or dead. Before methods of bacterial 
determination were perfected this organic matter was figured 
largely in chemical examinations of air. 

Because it was constantly present and because some explana- 
tion of the effect of ''crowd poison" was demanded, a resort 
was had to the theory of the presence, in expired air, of volatile 
organic substances poisonous in their nature. 

Ransome in 1870 {Jour. Anatomy and Physiology) and UfHe- 
mann in 1888 (Archiv.f. Hygiene) used the reduction of potas- 
sium permanganate to show the presence of organic matter 
(0.2 gram in twenty-four hours). Remsen in 1880 (Bulletin of 
the U. S. National Board of Health) used pumice stone as 
absorbent and Chapman's suggestion of distillation with alka- 
line permanganate and estimation of the produced ammonia. 
In the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Laboratory of 
Sanitary Chemistry, 1884 to 1887, niany experiments culmi- 
nated in the conclusion (Marion Talbot, Technology Quarterly, 
1887) that the source of the organic matter in the air of rooms 
was the invisible dust suspended in the air and not in matter 
given out by healthy persons. 

Seegen and Nowack, 1879 (Pfliiger's Archiv., Bd. XIX), found 
expired air poisonous to small animals. Brown-Sequard and 
d'Arsonval, 1887-1888 (Comptes Rendus),- found the aqueous 
washings of expired air poisonous to animals when injected into 
the blood, and although they recognized the presence of ammo- 
niacal salts, they suspected the presence of alkaloidal substances 



8 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



similar to leucomaines and ptomaines. They held that expired 
air participated largely in the production of pulmonary tuber- 



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Mean annual temperature and humidity of health resorts: 



I Algiers 


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2 Alexandria 


6 


Luxor-winter 


3 Cairo 


7 


Los Angeles 


4 Bermuda 


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Madeira 


to white man's residence: 






9 New Orleans 


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Persia 


lo Havana 


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India 


II Malay Archipelago 


14 


Singapore 



A-B Most comfortable for indoor workers (Hill). 

culosis, and this opinion stimulated investigations, so that for a 

period of ten years much work was done alternately pro and con. 

Emanuel Formanek, Prag {Archiv.f. Hygiene, 1900), reviewed 



STANDARDS OF AIR SUPPLY 9 

the previous work, made experiments with modern appKances, 
and since then observers have accepted his conclusions, i.e., 
that the healthy lung or skin does not give off poisonous vola- 
tile organic compounds; that ammoniacal salts are poisonous to 
small animals and have been the cause of some otherwise con- 
clusive deaths under experiment. 



Humidity 
10^ 20^ 30/0 40 fc 50 ^c 60^0 70 ^c 80 f^ 90^ Teim)eratirres 



150 F 
140°F 
130°F 
120>. 
110°F 
100 F Dangerous 

90°F Fierce 

80°F Hot 

70°F Uncomfortable 

60°F JWarm 

50°F Delightful 
Weather 

40°F 
30°F 



Chart to Show " Degrees of Discomfort" 

By Mark R. Lamb in Mining and Scientific Press, Aug. 27, 1910. 

Experience of twenty-five years with various plans of arti- 
ficial ventilation of closed space leads to a certain standard of 
air content which permits efficiency of workers and thinkers. 
This standard must take account of the psychic factors men- 
tioned. The chief of these is a sensation of comfort, or rather 
the absence of anything which may suggest discomfort. 

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lO CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

ments of the majority, the Curve of Comfort based on such 
records as are available has been plotted as a beginning of what 
may prove a rational working hypothesis for architects and 
engineers. This curve, as will be seen from the references, shows 
the opinion of experts as to favorable and unfavorable climatic 
conditions. 

The favorable conditions of the air for workers are 64° to 
68° F. and 40 to 60 per cent of saturation (humidity). At 
60° F. 70 per cent relative humidity is bearable. At 80° to 
86° F. there should be as Httle humidity as possible. At 86° F. 
60 to 70 per cent humidity is distinctly unfavorable. "A tem- 
perature equal to or greater than that of the body cannot be 
tolerated if the air be saturated with moisture." (Leonard Hill, 
'' Recent Advances in Physiology and Biochemistry," p. 270.) 
This is a condition favorable to heat apoplexy. (See chart.) 

Extremes of heat are better borne when the air is in motion 
than when it is still. Extremes of cold, on the other hand, are 
better borne when the air is still. 

Roughly, every increase of 27° F. doubles the amount of 
water vapor the air can hold in proportion to its weight. 

According to Macfie (''Air and Health," p. 97), dry air 
quickens metabolism, both through its cooling and its drying 
capacity; damp air slows it with a consequent depression or ac- 
cumulation of toxins. Water vapor is a far better conductor 
of heat than dry air, and thus air saturated with vapor at 35° F. 
is raw and chill. (Hill, p. 258.) 

With a temperature only 60° F. and humidity 80 per cent, 
12 parts per 10,000 CO2 is common in EngHsh practice, while 
the reverse, the temperature at 80° F. and humidity 60 per cent, 
only 6 parts CO2 is common in American practice. Both fall in 
the unfavorable zone. 

It is not suggested that audience halls or living rooms can 
equal the world's playgrounds in healthful conditions, but surely 
a nearer approach might be made to the curve of comfort if house 
dwellers and architects would insist on better management of 
details. 



CHAPTER III 

WHOLESOME AIR SUPPLY 

The Sanitary Inspector. Testing Apparatus and 
Recording Instruments 

In the near future each city will need an engineer with suffi- 
cient training to inspect the conditions of its public buildings, 
its model dwellings, as to both air supply and waste disposal. 

The supply of water is now more nearly regulated; the pres- 
sure in the city main forces the water out when the faucet is 
opened. But the existence of an air duct is not sufficient unless 
there is like pressure behind it. If there is, a draft is caused as 
objectionable to most persons as would be the stream of water 
from the faucet. 

Because waste water runs by its own weight from the lowest 
point, and because carbon dioxide is heavier than air, the popu- 
lar fallacy is almost ineradicable that waste air will go out of 
the bottom of the room if it has the chance. These two notions 
the engineer has to combat. When he circulates sufficient air 
through a closed, crowded space, drafts is. the cry. When he 
opens up sufficient ducts, cost is the louder cry. As Professor 
Woodbridge puts it, '' Your money or your life! " 

The sanitary engineer will find certain means of obtaining 
good air in use. He will be called upon to inspect them to see 
how far they are answering their purpose and, if not satisfactory, 
how to improve their working. This is a more difficult task 
than constructing from the ground, and it is more difficult to 
persuade an owner to pay for modifying or undoing that for 
which he thinks he has already paid exorbitantly. 

The whole matter of ventilation — change of air in enclosed 
spaces — is very simple in theory. There are two principles to 
be carried out scientifically: 



12 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

(i) Natural ventilation. Contrary to common opinion, foul 
air coming from human bodies or lights always rises and strives 
to get out at the highest point, and if a sufficiently large and 
warmed outlet is furnished so as to keep the air warm until it 
gets to the roof there will be no trouble. Fresh air will come in 
from the bottom and sides of the room and should come through 
many small openings. The one essential is a hot air shaft of 
sufficient capacity to take all the foul air and hot enough to 
keep up a good current. The failure comes in expecting a cold 
air shaft to "draw." 

(2) Forced ventilation, or compelling the air to go where it 
should whether it wants to or not. This is accomplished in 
three ways : 

{a) By a fire at the bottom of a tall chimney drawing up air 
with great force; open fireplaces. 

(Jb) By the so-called Smead or similar system, where the fire is 
in the basement and openings at the bottom of the rooms permit 
air to pass by devious ways into the sufficiently hot air shaft. 
(I never saw one of these which did what it was expected to do.) 

{c) By mechanical or fan ventilation, which is now success^ 
fully apphed to factories, schools, theaters, etc., only when the 
persons in control of the apparatus are intelligent enough to run 
it properly. 

The so-called plenum system furnishes an admirable circulation 
of air in a building with smooth ducts, washed air, oblong rooms 
of no great size, with tight windows, and occupied by relatively 
few people. The slight pressure outward prevents cold indrafts 
from the window casings, prevents ingress of dust and outside 
odors. The heat and humidity may be perfectly regulated. 
Altogether an apparently ideal system so far as machinery is 
concerned. 

The writer has had the experience of working in the first 
building put up with this ideal in mind and of meeting the 
human obstacles to its perfect success. It is safe to say that to 
the average person an open window means fresh air, a closed 
one, especially a fastened one, means oppressive air. To be 



WHOLESOME .\IR SUPPLY 13 

told that one must not open the wdndows is to condemn any 
system. Again, when indoors, the least feehng of moving air 
means "catching cold," and the velocity required to change the 
air rapidly enough for a large number of persons in a limited 
space is intolerable to a majority of those who enjoy ten times 
the breeze in an automobile. The engineer has to reckon \vdth 
these psychic obsessions as very real obstacles to his work. 

The ideal modern system of mechanical ventilation is a com- 
bination of push and pull. A plenum inlet and an exhaust fan 
to the outlet. This obviates the high velocity at inlet which is 
essential if all the power for the movement of the air is located 
at that point. 

By a combination of natural up-draft aided by mechanical 
suction instead of using force developed by heat, the exhaust fan 
is installed, for lavatories, laboratories, and many factories with 
noxious gases. 

In a building used by many persons for many purposes coming 
and going, the regulation of the currents of air so that they 
shall go in the desired direction and not in the opposite, requires 
the constant attention of an intelligent and informed janitor. 

With any aided natural system, the window leakage may 
reach 30 per cent. Tests of air leakage around windows were 
reported by Mr. H. W. Whitten at the recent meeting of the 
American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers. He 
has found that with a wind pressure equal to o.i inch of water 
outside a window having a sV-inch clearance between window 
frame and sash, 105 cubic feet of air were driven per hour through 
each Hneal foot of such clearance space, while with a xV-inch 
clearance the leakage was 184.8 cubic feet per hour. With 
other windows, equipped with good metal weather strips and 
subjected to the same pressure, the leakage amounted to no 
more than 12 cubic feet per Hneal foot per hour. In tests made 
with a pressure of J inch of water, which corresponds to a wind 
velocity of 24 miles per hour, leakages were noted of 19 cubic 
feet for T?V-inch clearance, 402 cubic feet for xV-in. clearance, 
and 45.6 cubic feet for the sash with the weather strips. With a 



14 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

pressure double that used in the latter case, equivalent to a wind 
velocity of 48 miles per hour, the leakages were 432 cubic feet, 
591.6 cubic feet, and 69 cubic feet. 

Parker and Kenwood state that "with less than 250 cubic feet 
of air space per head, no ventilation can be satisfactory which 
is not aided by mechanical force." 

While the pure sanitarian may declare, as has been already 
quoted, that it is a question of money for ventilation or for funeral 
expenses, the sanitary engineer is forced to consider waste of fuel 
in his testing of efficiency. As a rule he can save his consulting 
fees in showing the steam engineer how and when to economize 
heat in a pubKc building using mechanical ventilation. 

To apply force when and where it will do the most good, to 
shut off both heat and power when their use will be waste, — all 
this means a study of the particular space in relation to the 
particular needs of the occupants. No general directions can 
be given to suit all cases. The result to be reached is the com- 
fort of the intelHgent majority, since that is on the whole the 
best criterion we have. It is at the same time true that unin- 
telHgent persons may think they prefer dirty air as they put up 
with dirty water, dirty food, dirty clothes. 

The processes of testing and the use of recording instruments 
will be discussed in Laboratory Notes. 

Much has appeared in the public press in relation to ozone 
as an air purifier. The pleasant results from various aromatic 
oils used as sprays have been attributed to the revivifying 
effect of ozone. Its direct use has been tried with some success. 
More prolonged scientific investigation is needed before the 
reason for an apparent "freshening" of the air when treated 
with ozone is fully understood. The introduction of ozone un- 
accompanied by chlorine, nitrites, or other objectionable gases 
can only be beneficial in moderate quantity. 

The most noticeable increment of the air of an occupied 
room — odor — may be steadily given off from saturated walls, 
furniture and clothing, and be so small in quantity as to be 
detected only by the sense of smell. 



WHOLESOME XLR SUPPLY 1 5 

The carbon dioxide in amounts less than twenty parts may be 
negative in effect within the curve of comfort. 

The perspiring skin feels drafts which chill by carrying away 
moisture. The pernicious habit of keeping on outside clothing 
in audience rooms is responsible foi much of the engineer's 
troubles. Overdo thing is induced by the need of protection 
while waiting for cars on street corners or in passing from over- 
heated, close workrooms to the chill air of a severe and variable 
climate. 

Fashion must decree an extra wrap instead of heavy clothing. 

It is only the closest combination of scientific laws of the 
movement of gases \\^th experience of the elements of interference 
with these movements, material and human, that can devise a 
workable means of gi^ing to people good air in a suitable space 
and gi\dng it in spite of opposition and hindrance. 

Such is the mental condition of most people that furnishing 
them fresh air is like giving a child a nauseous dose of medicine, 
he has to be made to take it. He is sure he does not need it. 
Just as no man is willing to admit that his food is wrong, so no 
man will admit that he does not know fresh air when he meets it. 

It is only by some great crusade hke the present campaign 
against tuberculosis that a whole nation is aroused and put in a 
mental condition to learn a few necessary facts. A few of these 
the engineer should be conversant with and as a scientific man 
he will hold opinions as working hypotheses until further inves- 
tigation. 



WATER SUPPLIES 
THE NATION'S :M0ST VALUABLE ASSET 

WITHOUT WTnCH ALL VEGETABLE AND 
ANIMAL LIFE WOULD CEASE 



17 



CHAPTER IV 

WATER SUPPLIES 

A. Development from Ancient Times. B. The Modern 
Waterworks. C. The Indicated Future 

A. ANCIENT WATERWORKS 

Aside from any question of pure water, water as water is an 
absolute essential to life. From the beginning of the world up 
to a very few generations ago this economic value of water as 
water controlled the history of water supply, and the history of 
water supply in turn controlled the history of the race. Wherever 
there was an abundance of water, there civiHzation flourished; 
wherever it was lacking, there civilization and eventually life 
itself vanished. It is an estabHshed fact that the amount of 
water available to man in any given section is one of the 
best indexes of the development of that section. When the 
difficulty of procuring water increased, culture waned. This has 
been the history of Asia and Africa and of sections of our own 
country. 

Water is a prime necessity for human life, not only as regards 
the few liters we drink with our food but also for the animal 
whose skin we wear, whose flesh we eat, and for the vegetable 
crops we depend upon. 

In the nomad state man's wanderings were limited by the exist- 
ence of flowing or dug wells. Abundant flow was frequently 
celebrated as a holy shrine, and the man who found hitherto 
unsuspected water was regarded as a benefactor. 

Settlements have always been on flowing streams from the 
garden of Eden down. Water was necessary as a carrier and 
cleansing agent in greater quantities than could ordinarily be 
obtained from wells and springs. The latter, it is true, furnished 

19 



20 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

most of the early drinking supplies, due to the natural aesthetic 
aversion of the people to drinking their own waste, an aversion 
which we appear to be somewhat outgrowing to-day. The river 
was the natural laundry and the natural place of disposal of 
waste material. 

Even down to the nineteenth century people looked upon 
water supply as a question of economy and convenience. They 
used it for irrigating crops and for washing but drank tea or some 
other beverage of a more or less bactericidal nature. Occasion- 
ally they visited some holy shrine and there partook of well 
or spring waters so grossly polluted in most instances as to 
make it appear that the shrines must have had some miracu- 
lous properties in order to enable their visitors to return home 
alive. 

The first water filters were porous earthen jars devised for 
cooling the water, although the observations of a few early wise 
men may have been enough to connect cause and effect without 
allowing the common people to suspect reasons. 

It was not, however, until communities of considerable size 
grew up in wet climates like London that serious attention be- 
gan to be paid to quality of water supply. In the tropical and 
arid lands the periods of drought dried and cleaned the earth 
and vegetation purified it so that the sickness which usually 
accompanied the first rain passed for the effect of climatic 
seasons. 

The Roman suppHes were provided for aesthetic reasons rather 
than sanitary in the modern sense of the word, and were abun- 
dant only for the few. 

The great plagues of the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth 
centuries gradually brought public attention to the conclusion 
that dirt and waste had something to do with sickness. 

In certain instances where water was plentiful at one season 
and scarce at others early engineers in India, Ceylon, and other 
Eastern countries built large tanks or reservoirs for the storage 
of water to be used for irrigation. Remains of these great 
works are still visible and attest the engineering skill of these 



WATER SUPPLIES 21 

first engineers in the history of the world. As a rule, however, 
these works were all constructed with a view to uses other than 
drinking. 

Great canals and tunnels were constructed by the Assyrians 
and Persians, yet no large supply of water was furnished the 
people. In Judea, where waterways were extremely scarce, 
the wells and springs of a district were held of great value 
on account of the necessity of water for the herds of cattle 
and sheep. Possibly this habit of placing value on clear 
water, which was essential to the herds, led to the great works 
of the supply of the city of Jerusalem, commonly attributed to 
Solomon. 

''At various times since the days of King Solomon efforts 
have been made to secure a water supply on which the city 
could depend. About 7I miles to the southwest of the city of 
Jerusalem on the carriage road to Hebron, are three reservoirs, 
known as Solomon's Pools, built at different elevations so that 
the water might flow progressively through them. These were 
constructed in the bed of a valley, across which heavy walls 
were thrown and cemented. They were filled during the rainy 
season with water from the surrounding hills, and this was 
augmented by the inflow of a small spring a little higher in the 
valley, known as the 'Sealed Fountain,' and some other small 
springs. From these pools a masonry aqueduct was built, which, 
winding around the hillsides, carried the water to the temple in 
Jerusalem." ^ The entire course appears to be on the surface of 
the ground, or only slightly buried. The watercourse itself is 
constructed of earthenware pipes about 15 inches in diameter. 
These are well joined and are, in turn, enclosed in hollowed 
marble slabs; the entire aqueduct is then enclosed in concrete, 
well protected with stones and earth. At one point this conduit 
necessitated a tunnel 300 feet long through solid rock. 

"In the sixteenth century of our era the Mohammedans 
remodeled this aqueduct by replacing the open trough with 
pottery pipes, portions of which are still in use. In the second 
^ Engineering Record, August 13, 1910. 



22 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

century the Romans had begun to carry into execution an 
ambitious scheme, which they seemingly were never able to 
finish. Their source of supply was Ain Arroub, a large fountain 
which is also on the road to Hebron and about twice as far 
from Jerusalem as the Pools of Solomon, whose water was led 
into the middle of Solomon's Pools, and also Bir ed-Derej in 
Wadi el-Biyar, whose waters were led through a large conduit, 
through channels cut in the rock, and through a tunnel to a 
point above the Pools of Solomon. These waters were led to 
the city by two aqueducts, the lower one carrying the water 
accumulated in all the pools, and the upper one conveying the 
waters of the Sealed Fountain and of the Bir ed-Derej. The 
latter descends into the valley and then rises again, running 
through stone siphon pipes. These were made of solid blocks 
of stone about 3 feet square and 2 feet thick, pierced by a hole 
15 inches in diameter, and cemented together. Each one was 
made with a shoulder on one side and a flange on the other by 
which they fitted into one another. Part of this work is still to 
be seen."^ 

Joseph's Well. The most remarkable well probably ever made 
by man is Joseph's well at Cairo. This great well is excavated 
in the form of a rectangle 24 feet by 18 to a depth of 165 feet 
through solid rock, at which depth it is enlarged to a large cham- 
ber containing a basin or reservoir to receive the water raised 
from below. On one side of this chamber another shaft is con- 
tinued 130 feet lower, making the total depth 287 feet. This 
deeper shaft is 15 by 9 feet, and through it the water is raised into 
the basin by means of pumps propelled by horses. The manner 
in which these animals are enabled to descend into the chamber is 
one of the most interesting features of the well. A spiral passage- 
way is cut through the rock, it winds around the exterior of the 
well, with so slight a grade that the animals may walk up and 
down. The pumps consist of endless chains or ropes to which 
are fastened earthenware jars. 

Rome. The ancient Roman supplies have been so often de- 

^ Engineering Record, August 13, 1910. 



WATER SUPPLIES 23 

scribed that any lengthy description is unnecessary. At the 
height of Roman power they consisted of nine aqueducts bring- 
ing water from rivers, lakes, and springs. Of these aqueducts 
those constructed by Frontinus are perhaps the best known, as 
well as the greatest pieces of work. The Annio Novus is a 
little over 62 miles in length, about 48 miles being under ground 
and nearly ten miles carried on arches at times reaching an 
elevation of 109 feet above the surface of the ground. The 
best water was conveyed by the Aqua Marcius. This, at the 
time of Claudius, was reserved for drinking purposes alone. 
The Roman judgment of the quality of water was based upon 
the following simple definition: ^'A wholesome water must be 
clear and transparent; must have no odor; must leave no sedi- 
ment in the bottom of the vessel on standing; and must not 
coat the bottom or sides of a vessel upon heating." 

The arrangement of the distribution channels inside the city 
walls is of considerable interest. The various aqueducts en- 
tered the city at different elevations; therefore each was made 
to serve that section of the city whose elevation was most nearly 
that of the neighboring aqueduct. Nearly all of the distribu- 
tion was by means of lead pipes leading from the aqueduct to 
community reservoirs. From these reservoirs, in turn, lead pipes 
ran to the private houses served. In each house so served was 
a private reservoir of lead from which the water was distributed 
to the various baths and fountains of the house. In the com- 
munity reservoir at the entrance of each house pipe was placed 
a metal orifice to measure the flow of water. This orifice was 
duplicated at the end of the pipe of the private reservoir, thus 
providing a check on the quantity of water used. These orifices 
were originally of lead, but the wily householder soon discov- 
ered that he could expand the leaden orifices and so obtain a 
greater flow of water at the same rental. They were therefore 
changed for bronze tubes delivering a definite amount. The 
repair work of the Romans was carried on in a very business- 
like manner. In order not to interrupt the supply longer than 
was absolutely necessary all the materials and the workmen 



24 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

required for repairing an aqueduct were gathered together at 
the point where such repairs were needed before the supply- 
was cut off. 

The Roman works in certain of the cities of Gaul were almost 
as extensive as those of Rome itself. Leaden pipes have been 
pulled up by the anchors of vessels from the bottom of the 
river Rhone, showing that the Romans used such means of 
crossing rivers. 

Aqueduct at Lyons. The old Roman city of Lyons is well 
provided with magnificent palaces and temples and baths, the 
latter requiring a large quantity of water which was transported 
by means of great aqueducts built during the reign of Augustus 
Tiberius Claudius. The most ancient was erected by Marcus 
Antoninus. The higher part of the city was suppHed by a 
second aqueduct taking water from the Loire. Underneath this 
aqueduct was constructed a third to supply with water the 
palace of the Emperor Claudius. Numerous other minor aque- 
ducts were built in the same age for private supplies or for 
suppHes for the baths. The aqueduct of Claudius was really 
built of concrete, cement of lime being used together with 
fine gravel and water. This concrete was lined with square 
blocks of stone. The aqueduct channel itself was 3 feet broad 
and 6 feet deep. The aqueduct roughly followed the contour 
of the country in order to preserve the level. Several siphons 
of easy curvature were incorporated in the structure. The 
aqueduct at the bottom of the curve terminated in a reservoir 
near the valley of the river Garonne. From this reservoir the 
water was conveyed across the valley in pipes and delivered to 
another reservoir at the top of the opposite hill at a lower level; 
hence the water was conveyed by the aqueduct of Chaponost. 
This aqueduct ran underground for some distance, crossing a 
bridge composed of ninety arches and terminating in a third 
reservoir from which it passed through pipes, crossed the river 
Baunan and entered a fourth reservoir at St. Foi. From here 
the water flowed by a canal and tunnel to a fifth reservoir. It 
was then carried through pipes to a sixth reservoir near the walls 



WATER SUPPLIES 25 

of the city. The entire aqueduct is about 33 miles in length 
and has a descent of 360 feet. 

In Spain too are many remains of splendid aqueducts of 
Roman origin. At Segovia is one over 2000 feet in length 
and 94 feet high supported by 159 arches. It is in good part 
still standing after 1600 years. Grenada has an example of 
Arabian munificence in the supply of the famed Alhambra. 
The square of cistern consisting of numerous reservoirs, is kept 
constantly supplied with water by aqueduct some 3 miles in 
length. One of these cisterns or tanks is 102 feet long and 56 
feet wide. The cisterns are covered and provide with venti- 
lators. The fountains and baths of the palace were supplied 
with a great volume of water from these cisterns. 

Constantinople also has remains of aqueducts of Roman con- 
struction. Under the Greek Emperors Rome was supplied with 
water by means of aqueducts and large reservoirs. Ever since 
the days of these emperors the Turks have carefully preserved 
their streams and water suppHes. Numerous private supplies 
of ancient date are scattered throughout Turkey. These early 
supplies of Roman origin have been carefully extended and 
amplified by the Turks themselves, and it is stated that in 1831 
the city of Constantinople was suppKed with 15,000,000 gallons 
of water a day through aqueducts averaging 12 miles in length. 
As no suitable pipes were known to them in the earher days, 
they adopted a very ingenious scheme of preserving the level 
of their pipe lines. At various points along the Hne of supply 
artificial elevations in the form of pyramids were constructed. 
These pyramids really consisted of balancing reservoirs, so equal- 
izing the pressure of the cistern that it is nowhere great enough 
to burst earthenware pipes. 

The Supply of London. The earliest known supply in the 
city of London, aside from the then clear and hmpid Thames, 
was a system of wells and rivulets throughout the city. Stowe 
in the '' Survey of London," 1663, states, however, that even in 
his time these rivulets at some parts were too dry or became too 
jSlthy for use. There was, however, a large number of private 



26 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

springs and wells for those inhabitants near the Thames. The 
river of course provided a convenient source of supply as well as 
a public laundry. The first bill providing a supply of water was 
prepared by Henry III in 1236. It granted certain citizens the 
right to convey water from the town of Tyburne into the city 
by means of lead pipes. This first conduit was succeeded by 
•eleven others. In 1568 a conduit of Thames water was laid 
within the city. From this the public obtained their water, 
which they carried to their homes in buckets and barrels. Suc- 
ceeding the conduits was a system introduced by a Dutch 
engineer named Peter Morys, who in 1652 utilized one of the 
arches of London bridge as a support for a great water wheel 
which in turn pumped a supply of water into the city. He 
was given a lease of the arch for 500 years. The works after- 
wards covered arches of the bridge and were held in the Morys 
family until 1701, when they were sold to Richard Soams for 
^38,000. This gentleman organized a company which re- 
mained in existence until 1831, when the old bridge was de- 
stroyed. Queen Elizabeth granted to the citizens of London 
power ''to cut and convey a river" from any part of Hertford- 
shire in Middlesex to the city of London, with a limitation of 
ten years for the performance thereof. In the third year of 
James I, act of Parliament confirmed what was afterwards the 
New River scheme, and the Mayor and citizens were empowered 
to bring water from the springs of Chadwell and Amwell in the 
County of Hertfordshire. The city considered this too great an 
enterprise. In 1606, however, Sir Hugh Myddelton undertook 
the construction at his own expense. Shares in the New River 
Company were incorporated by Laws Patent in 161 9. This 
New River conduit was the greatest of all conduits, and the New 
River Company still supplies water by it to the reservoirs in 
London. 

Paris. The Romans brought a considerable supply of water 
to the city of Paris in an aqueduct at Arcueil, probably some- 
what similar to those of other Roman cities. It had, however, 
nearly disappeared at the time of Henry IV (1609), and the in- 



WATER SUPPLIES 27 

habitants of the city depended upon the water of the Seine and 
of their wells. When he ordered an investigation of the sources 
and condition of this ancient aqueduct, it was reported that 
it was in such a state of disrepair that it would be less expen- 
sive to entirely rebuild. Accordingly, an aqueduct was built 
which emptied into the reservoir at the observatory. Water 
carriers and carts distributed the water to the citizens. In 
spite of the recognized ability of the early French engineers, 
this system of water carriage and the private wells remained 
the only source of supply to the people until a Fleming 
named John Lintbaer obtained permission and installed two 
undershot water wheels similar to those installed in London, 
for the purpose of pumping the Seine water to the level of the 
Pont Neuf, whence it was distributed in lead pipes. Later, in 
1778, these water wheels were replaced by steam engines. In 
1802, when Napoleon was First Consul, an eminent engineer 
suggested that water be brought from the river Ourcq, a dis- 
tance of about sixty miles. Napoleon took up the suggestion 
with great enthusiasm, and the work of building an open canal 
which would receive on its course the waters of some five or six 
small streams was pushed to completion. This gave Paris a 
supply of which the Parisians of that period were exceedingly 
proud. 

South America. In America, the first provisions for artificial 
water supply were those of the ancient Incas in Peru. Many 
great aqueducts were built to carry water from the base of the 
mountains to the cities. That of the city of Tezcoco is perhaps 
the greatest work, being about 16 miles in length and carrying a 
stone channel 18 by 24 inches. The Incas had no knowledge of 
arch construction and were therefore obliged to carry their aque- 
ducts along the surface of the ground and yet maintain the 
proper elevation. To do this required expert engineering skill, 
considering no instruments of metal were used, in order to de- 
termine the best course along the mountain sides and through 
the valleys. The water supply provided many magnificent foun- 
tains in the cities, some of which were still flowing in the early 



28 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

part of the nineteenth century, though their underground sources 
were then unknown. 

The Spaniards were responsible for the destruction of these 
great works in Peru and Mexico. In Mexico some excuse for 
this vandahsm may be found in the tradition that some of the 
water- carrying pipes were built of pure gold, but the destruc- 
tion of the great stone aqueduct can never be forgiven. 

B. THE MODERN WATERWORKS 

The twentieth century begins a new era in waterworks, of 
which three examples are given of three types. Excellent de- 
scriptions of these completed works are available, and the student 
will find other examples in current literature. 

Albany has a slow sand-filtered river water, nature's method, 
amplified and speeded up. Boston collects several smaller 
streams from clean soil stores in clean reservoirs, exposes to 
nature's disinfectant, sunlight, and prevents contamination as 
far as possible. Cincinnati, the type of modern engineering 
work on a large-scale treatment of unfit water by the most 
scientific means, gives an impressive lesson on the use of me- 
chanical appliances for daily needs. 

Standards past and present will be described in a later chapter. 
Here it suffices to bear in mind the chemical, biological, and engi- 
neering difficulties to be overcome in providing a modern city 
with its modern needs and modern standards with a sufficient 
supply of a safe and satisfactory water. 

The quantity demanded is the most serious handicap. For 
instance, in the careful preliminary survey of the possible sources 
of future supply of the Boston Metropolitan area, Special Report, 
1895, the plan outlined was to furnish at the accepted estimates 
for increase of population a per capita supply sufficient for one 
hundred years. 

Within ten years the works were called on for about the fifty- 
year limit. It is evident that in all cities the great waste of 
water must be checked unless the larger places face the disasters 



WATER SUPPLIES 29 

of the ancient sites. Modern science may encourage an econ- 
omy like that at Bright Angels, Canyon of the Colorado, where 
the purified sewage is utilized for the steam plant. 

Albany 

The Albany water supply, up to the year 1899, was pumped 
unfiltered from the Hudson River. In 1896, after an epidemic 
of typhoid in which the death rate was 162 in a population of 
100,000, and an average death rate of 77 per 100,000 for the last 
twelve years, the Board of Health offered the following resolution: 

^^ Resolved, That the Board of Health communicate to the 
Board of Water Commissioners its convictions based on evi- 
dence regarding the health of the city which has come into its 
possession in the course of its special work and duties; that the 
present pubHc water supply is a source of sickness and unfit for 
prolonged domestic use, and that it urges upon the Board of 
Water Commissioners the necessity of either purifying the water 
now suppHed by means of oxidizing or nitrifying filters or of 
procuring it from a purer source." ^ 

In 1899 the slow sand filter was installed. The chief source 
of supply is still the Hudson River. 

The intake of the Albany filters is a simple concrete structure 
in the form of a box having an open top covered with rails 
6 inches apart, and connected below, through a 36-inch pipe, with 
a well in the pumping station. Before going to the pumps the 
water passes through a screen with bars 2 inches apart, so arranged 
as to be raked readily. 

Meter for Raw Water. Upon leaving the pumping station the 
water passes through a 36-inch Venturi meter having a throat 
area two-ninths of the area of the pipe. The meter records the 
quantity of water pumped, and is also arranged to show on 
gauges in the pumping station the rate of pumping. 

Aeration. After leaving the meter, the water passes to the 
sedimentation basin through eleven outlets. These consist of 

1 EnKi'neerinj? Record, March 21, 1896. 



30 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

1 2-inch pipes on end, the tops of the pipes being 4 feet above 
the nominal flow line of the sedimentation basin. 

Sedimentation Basin. The sedimentation basin has an area 
of 5 acres and is 9 feet deep. To the overflow, it has a capacity 
of 14,600,000 gallons, and to the flow line of the filters, 8,900,000 
gallons. There is thus a reserve capacity of 5,700,000 gallons 
between these limits, and this amount can be drawn upon, 
without inconvenience, for maintaining the filters in service 
while the pumps are shut down. This allows a freedom in the 
operation of the pumps which would not exist with the water 
supplied direct to the filters. The sedimentation basin is 
built on the river bank, largely above the natural surface of 
the soil. 

From the eleven inlets already described, the water enters 
one side of the sedimentation basin, and is withdrawn from 
eleven outlets directly opposite. The aerating devices bring the 
water into the basin without current, and evenly distributed 
along one side. Both inlets and outlets are controlled by gates, 
so that any irregularities in distribution can be avoided. 

When the basin is being cleaned, the supply is maintained by 
opening the by-pass from the pumps to the filters and pumping 
direct. 

Filters. The filters are of masonry, and are covered to pro- 
tect them against the winters, which are quite severe at Albany. 
The piers, cross walls, and linings of the outside walls, entrances, 
etc., are of vitrified brick. All other masonry is concrete. 

Floors. The floors consist of inverted, groined, concrete 
arches, arranged to distribute the weight of the walls and 
vaulting over the whole area of the bottom. The bottoms 
were put in in alternate squares running diagonally with the 
pier lines. 

Walls. For the outside walls the brick linings, 8 inches thick, 
were built first to the full height. A certain number of bricks 
were laid endways, and projected into the concrete. The pro- 
jecting bricks occupied about 4 per cent of the area of the wall. 
Afterward, wooden forms were put up on the outside, and the 



WATER SUPPLIES 3 1 

concrete backing was filled in. Above the vaulting there are 
two feet of earth and soil, grassed on the top. The tops of the 
manholes are 6 inches above the soil to prevent rain water from 
entering them. 

Inlets to Filters. Water is admitted to each filter through a 
20-inch pipe from a pipe system connecting with the sedimen- 
tation basin. Just inside of the filter wall is placed a standard 
gate, and beyond that a balanced valve, connected with an 
adjustable float to shut off the water when it reaches the desired 
height on the filter. 

Overflows. Each filter is provided wdth an overflow, so ar- 
ranged that it cannot be closed, which prevents the water level 
from exceeding a fixed limit in case the balanced valve fails to 
act. An outlet is also provided near the sand run, so that unfil- 
tered water can be removed quickly from the surface of the 
filter, should it be necessary, to facilitate cleaning. 

Effluent Drains. From the lower chambers in the regulator 
houses the water flows through gates to the pipe system leading 
to the pure-water reservoir. Drain pipes are also provided 
which allow the water to be entirely drawn out of each filter, 
should that be necessary for any reason, without interfering 
with the other filters or with the pure- water reservoir. The 
outlets of the filters are connected in pairs, so that filtered water 
can be used for filling the underdrains and sand of the filters 
from below, prior to starting, thus avoiding the disturbance 
which results from bringing dirty water upon the sand of a filter 
not filled with water. 

Pure-Water Reservoir. A small pure-water reservoir, 94 feet 
square, and holding about 600,000 gallons, is provided at the 
filter plant. The construction is similar to that of the filters, 
but the shapes of the piers and vaulting were changed slightly, 
as there was no necessity for the ledges about the bottoms of 
the piers and walls; while provision is made for taking the rain 
water falling upon the vaulting above to the nearest filters 
instead of allowing it to enter the reservoir. The floor and roof 
of the reservoir are at the same levels as those of the filters. 



32 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

The Metropolitan Waterworks Including Boston 

Boston has been most fortunate in its water supplies, having 
at hand lakes as natural storage reservoirs and being situated in 
a zone of considerable rainfall. The density of population has, 
however, brought many perplexing problems as to quantity 
and the maintenance of quality. A concise account of the 
completed works is taken by permission from Mr. Dexter 
Bracket's paper presented at the twenty-sixth meeting of the 
American Waterworks Association. 

In this system the quality of the water is maintained by pre- 
vention rather than restored by the renovation process. Instead 
of collecting everything as a fluid and filtering the heterogeneous 
mixture, the polluting streams are filtered, the watershed policed, 
and strict rules enforced as to new construction. In other 
words the watershed is largely owned by the Commonwealth, 
and all that area not so owned is under strict sanitary super- 
vision. For instance, in the year 1903, 1534 premises on the 
Wachusett watershed were inspected and 1376 found satisfac- 
tory. The owner of a mill having appealed to the Supreme 
Judicial Court from the injunction of the Superior Court, against 
a discharge of polluting material into a stream without treat- 
ment, a temporary provision is made. In general a readiness 
has been shown to comply with the requirements without 
recourse to the courts. 

The preparation of this watershed as a suitable collecting 
ground for potable water will be described under Chapter VIII, 
Regeneration. 

The investigations as to the effect of soakage on color and 
growth of organisms were carried on for five years, at first in 
the laboratory of the State Board of Health under the author's 
direction, 1893, and afterwards at the temporary laboratory at 
Clinton. 

In the year 1892 the city of Boston had nearly reached the 
capacity of its sources of water supply, and there were several 
other metropoHtan municipalities whose sources of supply were 



WATER SUPPLIES 33 

either inadequate in quantity or inferior in quality. It was 
evident that for the future supply of the Boston MetropoKtan 
District a comprehensive scheme was demanded. After a very 
careful and thorough investigation of the possible sources of 
supply, the State Board of Health, in February, 1895, pre- 
sented its report recommending the taking of the water of the 
South Branch of the Nashua River at a point above the Lan- 
caster Mills in the to^n of Clinton. 

The MetropoHtan Water Act, Chapter 488 of the Acts of the 
year 1895, approved June 5, 1895, provided that the governor 
should appoint three water commissioners who should consti- 
tute the Metropolitan Water Board. This Board was given 
broad powers, not only for the construction of the works, but 
also for the taking of property, for the changing of highways 
and railroads, and for the conduct of such operations as should 
be deemed necessary for protecting and preserving the purity 
of the water. 

The works, as at present constituted, comprise the Wachu- 
sett Reservoir on the Nashua River, capacity 63,000,000,000 
gallons; 

Eight storage reservoirs on the Sudbury River watershed, with 
a combined capacity of 13,616,100,000 gallons; 

Lake Cochituate, capacity 2,242,400,000 gallons; 

Wachusett Aqueduct for conve^dng water from the Wachu- 
sett Reservoir to the Sudbury Reservoir of the Sudbury supply, 
capacity 300,000,000 gallons in 24 hours; 

Weston Aqueduct and Reservoir for conve>dng water from 
the Sudbury Reservoir to the MetropoHtan District, capacity of 
aqueduct 300,000,000 gallons per day; 

Sudbury River aqueduct for conveying water from the reser- 
voirs on the Sudbury River to Chestnut Hill Reservoir, capacity 
103,000,000 gallons per day; 

Cochituate Aqueduct for conveying water from Lake Cochitu- 
ate to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir, capacity 18,000,000 gallons 
per day; Chestnut Hill Reservoir, which receives and stores 
water suppHed through the Sudbury and Cochituate aqueducts, 



34 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

and from which water is pumped for supplying the Metropolitan 
District; 

Five pumping stations located at Chestnut Hill Reservoir^ 
Spot Pond, West Roxbury, and Arlington, containing 13 pump- 
ing engines having an aggregate capacity of 204,500,000 gallons 
in 24 hours; 

Six distributing reservoirs, of which Spot Pond is the largest, 
and two standpipes, located in the Metropolitan District, having 
a combined capacity of 1,881,230,000 gallons; 

84.2 miles of pipes, ranging in size from 60 inches to 12 
inches in diameter, through which water is delivered to a 
population of about 900,000 residing in eighteen cities and 
towns. 

The Wachusett Reservoir is located in the towns of Clinton, 
Boylston, and West Boylston, and is formed by a dam across 
the South Branch of the Nashua River located about half a 
mile above the settled portion of the town of Clinton, and by 
two earth dikes, one on either side of the valley a short distance 
above the main dam. 

The river above the dam has a watershed of 118.32 square 
miles. The reservoir is 8.41 miles long, with a maximum width 
of 2 miles, an area of 4195 acres, or 6.56 square miles, and a 
capacity of 63,068,000,000 gallons. The maximum depth of 
water is 129 feet; the average depth 46 feet. 

The land required for the reservoir contained 6 large mills, 
8 schoolhouses, 4 churches, and about 360 dwelling houses occu- 
pied by 1700 people. 

The construction of the reservoir necessitated the discontinu- 
ance of 19! miles of roads and the construction of 11.8 miles of 
new roads, one of which crosses the reservoir on an embankment 
700 feet long and from 50 to 70 feet in height. 

The Wachusett Dam is a granite masonry structure comprising 
the main dam 944 feet long, including abutments at each end, 
crossing the valley of the river, with its top 20 feet above high- 
water level in the reservoir, and a waste weir 452 feet lonsj, over 
which the flood waters can be discharged into a channel 11 50 



WATER SUPPLIES 



35 



feet long, excavated in rock, following the contour of the hillside 
of the river channel below the dam. 

The Sudbury River, above the point of diversion, has a drain- 
age area of 75.2 square miles, on which eight storage reservoirs 
have been built by damming the river and its tributaries at 
various points. 

The following reservoirs are located on this source: 



Framingham Reservoir, No. i 
Framingham Reservoir, No. 2 
Framingham Reservoir, No. 3 

Farm Pond 

Ashland Reservoir 

Hopkinton Reservoir 

WTiitehall Reservoir 

Sudbury Reservoir 

Total ' 



143 
134 
253 
159 
167 

185 

601 

1292 



6 § 



287 
599 
1,183 
167 
1,416 
1,520 
1,256 
7,253 



13,616.1 



169. 27 
177.12 
186.50 

159-25 
225. 21 
305 • 00 
337-91 
260 . 00 






^ :i 



Jan., 1879 
Aug., 1879 
Dec, 1878 



Apr., 1886 
May, 1895 



Apr., i^ 



- £ 



-a ^ 



16 
20 
24 
12 

48 

53 
18 

65 



Lake Cochituate, situated about 18 miles west of Boston, is 
a natural pond or chain of ponds about 3I miles in length. It 
has an area of 776 acres and a watershed of 18.87 square miles. 

The Wachusett Aqueduct conveys water from the Wachusett 
Reservoir to the Sudbury Reservoir, a distance of 12 miles. 
The first two miles is a rock tunnel, followed by seven miles of 
masonry aqueduct, including a bridge over the Assabet River 
and three miles of open channel. The tunnel section has a fall 
of one foot in 5000, is Hned for about one-half of its length with 
brickwork 12 inches thick, and where lined is 12 feet 2 inches 
wide and 10 feet 10 inches high. The masonry aqueduct has 
a fall of one foot in 2500, and is 11 feet 6 inches wide and 
10 feet 6 inches high. The open channel is 20 feet wide on the 
bottom, and has side slopes of 3 horizontal to i vertical. All 
sections have a capacity of 300,000,000 gallons per day. 



36 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

The Weston Aqueduct conveys water from the Sudbury Res- 
ervoir to a point in the town of Weston a short distance west of 
the Charles River and a Httle more than 10 miles from the 
State House. The distance from the Sudbury Dam to the 
terminus of the aqueduct is 13.42 miles. At the lower end of 
the reservoir there is a screen chamber, from which the masonry 
aqueduct extends 5658 feet to the terminal chamber, from 
which pipes are used to convey the water into the Metropolitan 
District. On the line of the aqueduct there are five tunnels 
haviog an aggregate length of 12,165 ^^Q^, lined throughout 
with concrete. 

The Sudbury Aqueduct conveys water from Framingham Res- 
ervoirs Nos. I, 2, and 3, located on the Sudbury River, to the 
Chestnut Hill Reservoir in the Brighton district of the city 
of Boston, a distance of 17.4 miles. It is of horseshoe shape, 
constructed of brick and stone masonry laid in cement mortar. 
From the beginning at Dam No. i to the gatehouse at Farm 
Pond, a distance of i| miles, the aqueduct is 7 feet 6 inches 
wide and 6 feet 10^ inches high, and has a fall of one foot in 
2275. From the Farm Pond gatehouse to Chestnut Hill Reser- 
voir it is 9 feet wide, 7 feet 8 inches high, and has a fall of one 
foot per mile. It has a capacity of 103,000,000 gallons in 24 
hours. 

The aqueduct crosses the valley of Waban Brook and the 
Charles River on granite masonry bridges. The Waban valley 
bridge is 536 feet long, and consists of 9 semicircular arches of 
44 feet 8 inches span. The Charles River bridge is 475 feet 
long, 79 feet above the river, and is formed by 7 arches, the 
largest one having a span of 129 feet. At the valley of Rose- 
mary Brook two lines of 48-inch and one line of 60-inch cast- 
iron pipe, each line being 1800 feet long, take the place of the 
masonry structure. There are four tunnels on the Hne of the 
aqueduct, the longest of which is 4635 feet in length. 

This aqueduct was built by the city of Boston, and was com- 
pleted and first used in 1878. 

The Cochituate Aqueduct is 13.7 miles long and extends 



WATER SUPPLIES 37 

from Lake Cochituate to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. It is 
egg-shaped in section, 5 feet wide, 6 feet 4 inches high, and is 
built of brick masonry 8 inches in thickness, with the exception 
of a tunnel 2410 feet long, which is unlined, and at the crossing 
of the Charles River, where four Hnes of cast-iron pipes 11 00 
feet long are substituted for the masonry structure. Two of 
these are 30 inches in diameter, one 36 inches, and one 40 
inches. The masonry portion of the aqueduct has a fall of one 
foot in 20,000. 

The Chestnut Hill Reservoir is located in the Brighton dis- 
trict of the city of Boston, about five miles from the State 
House. It receives water from the Sudbury and Cochituate 
aqueducts, and serves as a storage reservoir from which the 
pumps at the high- and low-service stations draw their supplies. 

All water delivered into the Chestnut Hill Reservoir by the 
Sudbury and Cochituate aqueducts is pumped at two stations 
located on the southeasterly side of the reservoir. At one sta- 
tion water is pumped to supply the higher land in the southern 
portion of the MetropoKtan District; at the other it is pumped 
into mains leading to Spot Pond, which is the principal distrib- 
uting reservoir for the lower portion of the district. 

The quahty of the water has so far justified the careful pro- 
visions as to stripping and planting with pines. Time only will 
prove its lasting efficiency. For the conditions under which 
the work could be carried out the author believes it a much 
wiser plan than to have allowed the collection of debris to 
remain and to have trusted to filtration. 

" In carrying on the work of construction both of the Wachu- 
sett Reservoir and the Weston Aqueduct, medical inspectors 
have been employed under the supervision of engineers in 
charge, whose duty it has been to examine the camps which 
have been constructed for laborers and all other buildings in 
which laborers upon the works have been lodged, and to make 
constant effort to keep all such places in clean and sanitary 
condition."^ 

1 Third Annual Report of the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board, page 27. 



38 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

"It has been the poHcy of the Board to introduce at its own 
expense the works which are required for remedying causes of 
pollution when the sources existed prior to the operations of 
the Board. In cases where the sources of pollution have arisen 
since the operations of the Board began, it has been made the 
duty of the owner to pay the cost of such work."^ 

It is not claimed that the work is perfect or perfectly carried 
out, but there may be just pride in the statement that may be 
made that since the establishment of metropolitan control there 
has been no epidemic traceable to Boston water supply and no 
proved case of disease. 

Cincinnati, Ohio, Supply 

Water was taken from the Ohio River and distributed by a 
private company with exclusive privileges for 99 years from 181 7. 
In 1839 the city took possession. In 1842 the need of a reser- 
voir on high ground was urged by Mr. Nicholas Longworth, who 
offered a site at $500 an acre but was refused the price. In 
three years he was selling the land at $10,000 to $14,000 an acre. 

In 1853 the water was examined and fears of pollution allayed 
for a number of years. In 1865 Mr. J. P. Kirkwood submitted 
recommendations for a future supply and a filtration plant, the 
estimated cost to be three million dollars. Other extensions 
were put in piecemeal for the rapidly growing sections, not 
always wisely, and from 1878 to 1884 there was frequently a 
scarcity of water, and in 1890 with a population of 297,000 the 
city was facing a water famine. Repairs and extensions brought 
the capacity up to 47.000,000 gallons daily in 1895. Uneasiness 
as to the quality of the water was prevalent at various times 
during these years, but by 1895 the demand for improvement 
became insistent. Various commissions investigated possible 
sources, but came to the conclusion that the Ohio River was the 
only practicable source but that there must be a new site for 
the intake and a treatment of the water such "as to make it 
comply with the requirements of the highest practical standards 

1 Third Annual Report of the Metropohtan Water and Sewerage Board, page 28. 



WATER SUPPLIES 39 

for purity in water for domestic uses." In 1897 the construc- 
tion of an experimental filter plant was authorized and in 1899 
the report of Mr. George W. Fuller was submitted. In some 
respects this report is a more valuable source of information 
than the famous Louis\Tlle report. In 1900 the mechanical 
system for the purification of the Ohio River water was adopted. 

The following extracts illustrating the compKcated machinery 
of a modern water supply plant are made from the report of 
the chief engineer on the completion of the $11,500,000 plant. 

The intake pier of the Cincinnati water system consists of 
soHd stone masonry structure supported on a timber caisson 
57 by 29 feet, carried down through the sand and gravel of the- 
river bottom into the bedrock to elevation — 34.50, 0.00 being 
datum at 3J feet below low stage of water. 

The top of the intake pier supports a handsome stone build- 
ing, finished off with a sightly tower on the upstream end. This 
building contains the electric traveling hoist, pumps, hydraulic 
cylinders, screen car, tools, and other material, and forms the 
shelter for the men engaged in hoisting, cleaning, and lowering 
the various screens. 

Intake Tunnel. The shaft well of the pier, extended down- 
ward, forms the connection betw^een the inlet well and the 
intake tunnel and below elevation — 8.00, consists of a brick- 
lined shaft of 7 feet interior diameter. At elevation — 69.00 
the shaft makes a curved connection with the tunnel, the latter 
extending in a straight line from this shaft to the base of the 
pump-pit shaft, a distance of 1430 feet eastward to the Ohio 
shore of the river, with a descending grade of i in 400 feet. 
The pump-pit shaft, which is 8 feet in diameter, is also con- 
nected with the tunnel by a curve being made by the soffit 
of the tunnel arching. The tunnel, which is 7 feet in diameter, 
was excavated through rock. 

Above the rock the pump-pit shaft consists of a steel shell 
10 feet in diameter, extending through the pump-pit floor to 
elevation -f 109.00. Below the pump-pit floor the steel shell is 
lined with two rings of brick set on edge. 



40 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

The pump pit, 98 feet in diameter and 85 feet deep, is formed 
by a circular stone masonry wall 15 feet thick at the bottom, 
where it rests upon the caisson. 

Pumping Machinery. The pump pit contains four self-con-, 
tained, triple-expansion, crank-and-fiywheel pumping engines, 
which take their supply from the pump-pit shaft through the 
48-inch openings and discharge through 48-inch delivery mains 
into two lines of 60 inch diameter pump mains, laid in the 
embankment, and through these to the settling reservoirs at an 
elevation 145.00 feet above city datum. 

Settling Reservoirs. The two settling reservoirs serve alter- 
nately in removing by quiescent sedimentation of from forty to 
forty-eight hours' duration a large part of the matter which 
is held in suspension by the river water. This is accomplished 
by drawing the water from one reservoir from near its surface, 
while the other is rapidly filled, and given not less than forty 
hours for sedimentation. The service is alternated when the 
water has been drawn down 30 to 31 feet. 

Provisions are made for washing the accumulated sediment 
out of either reservoir by means of large effective hose streams, 
which cut up and carry the mud to four drainage outlets in the 
bottom of each reservoir, dispersed nearly equal distances apart, 
these outlets being connected to 16, 20, and 24 inch cast-iron 
drain pipes laid in the clay blanket under the bottom of the 
reservoirs, the drain pipe passing as a 30-inch cast-iron main 
through the archway and out at the bottom of the shaft to a 
paved ditch in the ravine leading to Lick Run. 

The filter plant consists of three coagulation basins, a head 
house, filter house, and chemical house, also of a wash-water 
reservoir and the clear-water basin, together with the necessary 
piping, valves, and valve houses. 

The capacity of basins Nos. i and 2 are each 10,250,000 and 
of No. 3 is 2,160,000 gallons. 

The clear-water basin is located north of the coagulating 
basins, and has a capacity of 19.6 million gallons. All the 
walls of these basins except the dividing wall between coagu- 



WATER SUPPLIES 41 

lating basins i and 2 are made of rolled embankments, with a 
2 to I slope on the outside and a if to i slope on the inside. 
The outer slopes are sodded and the inner slopes and bottoms 
are covered and protected by a revetment like that used in the 
setthng reservoirs, 'consisting of clay, broken stone, concrete, 
asphalt, burlap, and brick, excepting that on the bottom of the 
clear-water baSin, instead of the layer of brick, a layer of con- 
crete is placed over the asphalt in the form of inverted groined 
arches, forming pier bases for future columns, should it be 
found necessary to cover this basin with a roof. A dividing 
wall between basins i and 2 is buttressed, and consists of con- 
crete suitably reenforced with steel rods. The maximum depth 
of these basins, except coagulation basin No. 3, is 23.5 feet 
below high water, and in No. 3 is 17.5 feet. The coagulation 
basins are each provided with two mud valves and outlets, con- 
nected to a 24-inch cast-iron drain pipe leading to a branch of 
Lick Run. 

The head house, chemical house, filters, and filter house, ex- 
cepting the outer walls, are constructed entirely of concrete. 
The outer walls are of brick, with stone trimmings. 

The settled water from the reservoirs or the raw water from 
the pump mains is conveyed from either one or both of the 
60-inch mains through six 36-inch branch connections to the 
circulating chambers in the head house. 

The filter house, located between the head and chemical 
houses, contains the 28 filters, each consisting of two sections, 
14 by 50 feet in the clear, having a rated capacity of 4,000,000 
gallons per day. 

As the water passes through either one or both of the circu- 
lating chambers, the first chemical, in the form of a solution of 
sulphate of iron of required strength is injected into the same 
through two 2-inch pipes opening into each chamber. The 
solution is brought from the chemical house through two lines 
of 3-inch cast-iron pipes laid through the pipe gallery of the filter 
house. Either one of these lines can be put out of service and 
cleaned by flushing with filtered water under a head of 40 feet. 



42 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

From the circulating chambers the water flows through one 
or two 6o-inch Venturi meters, which measure all the water 
passing to the coagulation basins, and indicate upon dials as 
well as record upon charts located upon the ground floor of the 
head house the rate at which the water is passing out of the 
head house to valve chamber B, located about 35 feet east 
thereof and at the southwest corner of coagulation basin No. 3. 
This information, constantly attainable, permits of regulating the 
rate at which either chemical should be apphed. By a 30-inch 
branch from one of the 60-inch mains in front of the head house 
to both lines of 60-inch pipes between the head house and cham- 
ber B provision is made for by-passing either settled or raw 
water to the coagulation basin up to a rate of 70,000,000 gallons 
per day, thus permitting the 36-inch piping entering the head 
house to be drained for examination and repair without inter- 
fering with the operation of the filter plant. 

At the bottom of this chamber the solution of lime of neces- 
sary strength is admitted through a 24'inch opening, becoming 
mixed with the water as it passes on through an 84-inch diameter 
steel conduit to basin 3 or to valve chamber C, which is 
located at the south end of the dividing wall between coagula- 
tion basins i and 2. The lime solution is brought from the 
saturators in the chemical house through a 24-inch pipe laid 
along the west side of the buildings to and in front of the head 
house and thence east to the bottom of chamber B. 

The steel conduit is laid in the basin embankment, and is 
encased its entire length in concrete. 

While passing through chamber E, basin 3, the water may 
be given a secondary treatment with either one or both chem- 
icals. 

It is not intended to have complete sedimentation take place 
in the basins, as it is desirable and necessary to have the water, 
when reaching the filters, still contain a small amount of coagu- 
lated material to form the gelatinous film on the surface of the 
sand in the filters to serve in retaining the remaining bacteria 
and all other matter in suspension, a very large percentage of 



WATER SUPPLIES 43 

these being already removed by the coagulation and sedimenta- 
tion which take place in the basins. 

The water passes through the filters at a uniform rate of 
about 125,000,000 gallons per acre per day, and is collected in 
the manifold piping in the pipe chambers underneath the filter, 
and conveyed to the two efHuent mains. 

The rate of filtration is maintained constant by a rate con- 
troller at the outlet end of the efiluent piping of each filter. 
Only a sufiicient number of filters are run to meet the average 
daily needs, and their period of operations between washings 
varies from six to twenty-six hours, and occasionally as high 
as fifty hours, according to the condition of the coagulated 
water. 

The head necessary to pass water through the filter medium at 
the rate of 4,000,000 gallons per day per filter of 1400 square 
feet area amounts, when the filter is clean, to a little over two 
feet, and as the difference of elevation between the water coming 
on to the filters and that going out of the effiuent mains varies 
from 12 to 14 feet, nearly all of that difference may be utilized 
in passing water at the constant rate through the increasing 
deposit upon the sand until the total loss of head has become 
12 feet, when the filter must be cleaned and the accumulated 
deposit be removed by washing. This is done with filtered 
water and by reversing the flow through the filters at a rate 
seven to ten times as great as the rate of filtration, or at 
an upward rate of from 1.80 to 2.50 feet per square foot per 
minute. 

To bring about a thorough washing of the sand, the water is 
admitted beneath the strainer system under a pressure of about 
six pounds per square inch at that point. 

The process of washing is divided into two periods. The first, 
lasting from one-half to one minute, admits the wash water 
under about half the above pressure, which lifts the mud layer 
from off the sand without disturbing the latter, while during the 
second period the wash water is admitted under full pressure for 
from three to five minutes, which, without disturbing the gravel, 



44 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

brings the entire sand bed above the screen into complete flota- 
tion, yet not to such an extent as to carry off any of the sand 
with the wash water. 

This process of washing is very thorough and complete, and 
no other or additional means for cleaning the sand bed are 
needed or provided. A small amount of the sediment is al- 
lowed to remain in the water at the close of the washing so 
as to form at once a film over the sand bed on the admission of 
the coagulated water. Samples taken from the effluent immedi- 
ately after the filter has been replaced in service show as good 
bacterial efficiency as at any time during the run of the filter. 

The entire operation of cleaning a filter and of returning the 
same into service requires from thirteen to fifteen minutes. 

The only chemicals used are crushed lime and sulphate of 
iron. They are delivered by the manufacturers in bags of loo 
pounds each. 

The water used for slaking the lime is metered and previously 
heated to 140° F. 

The iron solution is prepared by dumping a bag of sulphate 
into a tank, where it is stirred and from which it is injected into 
the circulating chambers. 

As the required strength of these solutions must continually 
vary with the constantly changing character and condition of 
the settled water, this variation in the solutions is brought 
about by regulating the intervals between the time of dumping 
100 pounds of one. or the other chemical into the stirring tanks 
while a constant and uniform flow of water through these tanks 
is being maintained. A systematic and accurate regulation is 
made possible by the striking of a gong for each chemical at 
intervals, controlled by a clock and contact disks so designed 
that the intervals for each may be made to vary all the way 
from three and a half to ninety minutes in time. Upon the 
determination of the strength of the solution of either chemical 
required, the inserting of the proper contact disk will, by means 
of the gong, direct the laborer to empty the bag at the proper 
moment to obtain the desired results. 



WATER SUPPLIES 45 

C. THE INDICATED FUTURE 

Nearly all great cities are approaching a limit of available 
water supply under present climatic conditions. When the cycle 
will be completed and a larger rainfall give an abundance is 
not within the range of prophesying, — apparently not in the 
next one hundred years. 

If cities continue to grow, as they seemingly will, if they con- 
tinue to demand more and better water, the young engineer of 
to-day will be called upon for some measures radically different 
from those in present use. 

Two things have been urged in the author's lectures to classes 
for the past ten or fifteen years, — a saving of water for vegetable 
growth by sewage irrigation and a double supply for many 
towns and sections of some cities. 

The hindrance to the adoption of either or both these schemes 
is in the ignorance of the masses and the prejudice of the legis- 
lators and leaders. While the people as a whole are ignorant of 
what safe water means, and so unbelieving that they will not 
take the trouble to cross a room to drink from a clean source, 
it is manifestly unsafe to have an impure water within easy reach. 

Until the management of both water supply and wastes dis- 
posal is under the control of a corps of skilled scientific engineers, 
failure will usually follow attempts at utilization. But this line 
of conservation of the faihng water resources is clearly indicated 
in the not very distant future. 

Some plans now in process of development will illustrate the 
coming needs. The student is advised to keep well au courant 
with the great scheme for the New York water supply and with 
the very interesting developments certain to arise in connection 
with the needs of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Several other 
cities are engaged in improving the quality and quantity, and 
some of them are wise enough to think about waste disposal 
before it is too late to save the watershed. 



CHAPTER V 

The Development of the Sanitary Idea Illustrated by 

THE Growth and Municipalization of Water Supplies. 

Wholesome Water the People's Right 

By the sanitary idea is meant sanitation, not medication — 
prevention rather than cure. One objection to the use of hy- 
giene as a synonym is that its meaning is so alKed to the practice 
of medicine. Although the goddess Hygiea was worshiped with 
enthusiasm and the use of medicinal waters is as old as man, 
yet all through the ages has lingered the beHef that they that 
are whole have no need of the physician. 

The maintenance of health by sanitary environment as a 
government duty could only come into the thought of men with 
the rise of democracy, the belief that one man's life was worth as 
much as his neighbor's, that the strong and the educated were 
bound to look after the weak and ignorant. The seeds of this 
element of modern life remained a long time dormant. But a 
few prophetic souls began to put two and two together in the 
last half of the eighteenth century. Robert Burns was the 
voice of the people, 1 759-1 796, and both poets and prose writers 
began to treat the mass of men as worthy of consideration. 

The sanitary idea is essentially scientific and could not have 
come into existence before science had somewhat established 
itself. The discovery of oxygen in 1774 had a profound influ- 
ence in modifying man's thought on the processes of life and 
decay. Benjamin Franklin, 1 706-1 790, and Count Rumford, 
1 753-1814, were both interested in natural science as aftecting 
common daily life. 

That early death and frequent sickness was a sufficient loss 
of productiveness to be a matter for national concern, was rec- 
ognized by that remarkable group of Englishmen who between 
1825 and 1850 laid the foundations of sanitary science. Dr. Edwin 

46 



WATER SUPPLIES 47 

Chadwick's effort to get behind fate to the causes of disease; 
Dr. Benjamin Ward Richardson's motto, "National Health is 
National Wealth " and his description of the city of Hygiea; Dr. 
WilHam Farr's ser\dce in organizing a scheme for registration 
(1838) now known as vital statistics, proving the value of human 
life; Dr. John Snow's surmise that cholera was spread by the 
drinking of water impregnated with cholera poison, all tended 
to an awakening of a national consciousness. The disposal of 
sewage and its difficulties (1839); the establishment of a Journal 
of Health (1855); the development of statesmanship as a science, 
including the conservation of human resources (1859), were 
followed by scientific investigation as seen in the Rivers Pollu- 
tion Commission (1865). 

These steps taken in England were watched by the civilized 
world. By the middle of the nineteenth century the value of 
human life was recognized and a study of the causes that led to 
the sacrifice of so many citizens in the prime of usefulness was 
imder taken in many countries. 

The economic value of a worker has been the actual fulcrum 
used to raise the status of the multitude, and perhaps it has 
been a more powerful force than any mere sentiment of lessening 
suffering. 

Massachusetts followed closely along the same humanitarian 
lines, establishing the first State Board of Health in 1869. The 
early workers for it were actuated by the belief that healthy, 
happy human beings were the Staters best, most valuable asset. 

There also came clearly into reckoning a social idea, the 
brotherhood of man, duty to one's neighbor, as is seen by so 
much sanitary law being considered as founded on the statute of 
nuisance. 

While the right of the family to keep a privy close to its well, 
no matter how much sickness might come, was jealously main- 
tained, the moment the neighbors complained of nuisance the 
arm of the law reached the case. It was only with the approach 
of the twentieth century that the man himself and his family 
were protected from his own neglect. 



48 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Drinking water and living conditions occupied the attention 
of the able men who led Massachusetts opinion. By this time 
the possibility of prevention of most diseases, especially of 
those known or suspected to be water-borne, was beginning to 
be recognized by the laity, and the aid of science was invoked 
to furnish means of detecting dangerous conditions before human 
life was put in peril. Until about 1880 the appearance of 
disease was the first proof of an infection. For ten years all 
countries vied with each other in studies which should enable the 
health officer, by that time a recognized power in the State, to 
state positively that a given condition was a menace to the 
health of the people. It was then that sanitary science, in a 
certain distinction from medical science, was born. 

One of the pioneers in formulating the somewhat vague ideas 
and insisting upon scientific conceptions of the office of the 
State in the promotion of sanitation was Dr. George Derby, the 
first secretary of the Massachusetts State Board of Health. 

"I have used one expression about which I wish to enter into 
some detail, viz., 'State Medicine in Massachusetts.' What is 
the precise meaning of the expression? It is of very recent 
growth in our language. It has, in fact, arisen, I believe, within 
the last few years in England, where already it has become a 
great power for good. Its objects rank among the most impor- 
tant matters now discussed by the highest intellects and human- 
est hearts in Great Britain. It is, as I understand it, a special 
function of a State authority, which, until these later days of 
scientific investigation, has been left almost wholly unperformed, 
or exercised only under the greatest incitements to its opera- 
tion, such as the coming of the plague, cholera, smallpox, or 
some other equally malignant disease. By this function the 
authorities of a State are bound to take care of the pubKc 
health, to investigate the causes of epidemic and other diseases, 
in order that each citizen may not only have as long a fife as 
nature would give him, but likewise as healthy a life as possible. 
As the chief object of the physician is the cure, if possible, of 
any ailment which is submitted to his care, so the far higher 



WATER SUPPLIES 49 

aim of State Medicine is, by its thorough and scientific investi- 
gations of the hidden causes of disease that are constantly at 
work in an ignorant or debased community, to prevent the very 
origination of such diseases. Much has already been suggested 
in England towards the crushing out of fevers, etc. Still more 
recently one of the grandest results of the State Medicine is its 
virtual recognition under international law, by the appointment 
of joint governmental commissioners for the investigation and 
prevention of the spread of Asiatic cholera." ^ 

In the same report he writes, ''The Board hope to be able 
hereafter to present such facts and conclusions as may be of 
some service to the citizen in the conduct of hfe, and to the 
legislator in the discharge of his responsible duty." 

The high purpose of State investigation he has admirably 
expressed: "The pollution of streams by industrial establish- 
ments and by the sewage of towns has been several times during 
the past year brought to the notice of the State Board of Health. 
Judging from the history of still more densely populated man- 
ufacturing districts in other parts of the world, the general 
subject will continue to claim the attention of the people of Mas- 
sachusetts for many years to come. As the interests of life and 
health become more definite and more valued, and as manu- 
factories and population grow and multiply, the apparent con- 
flict in this respect between health and industry will yearly 
become more evident. It is our duty, if possible, to show that 
these important interests are not irreconcilable, and to give a 
word of warning in season to prevent their relations from being 
forgotten until it is too late to remedy the omission except at 
enormous cost." 

The first work done in Massachusetts on the question of 

pollution of water supplies was that of Professor Nichols of the 

Institute, in examining the water of Mystic pond. His report 

is given in the second report of the Board, 187 1 (pp. 386-393). 

In all, nineteen samples were examined for mineral constituents, 

* First Annual Report of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, pages 
9, 10, Secretary's Report, January, 1870. 



50 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

no attempt being made to determine organic impurities other 
than by the use of the permanganate test. 

On the 6th of April, 1872, the Legislature of Massachusetts 
instructed the State Board of Health ''to collect information 
concerning sewage and the possibihty of utilizing it, the pollu- 
tion of streams and the water supply of towns, and to report 
at the next session." Thus began the work of Massachusetts, 
now and for all time a notable example of scientific work. 

The examination of the streams begun by Prof. Wilham 
Ripley Nichols at the laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology was prosecuted with an ever-increasing sense of 
its value until sufficient data were obtained based on science as 
far as it was sure of its ground. 

To the sanitary expert the authorities have seemed to be 
dilatory, to have been lenient to commercial interests rather 
than careful of the sanitary welfare of the masses, but it must be 
confessed that the science of organic growth and decomposition 
has been of slow development and with much controversy and 
many seemingly backward steps. So far as the water problem 
is concerned the crux of the fight was, first, organic matter, 
what it had to do with disease and how its presence could be 
detected and the cause removed. 

Elaborate studies at this time were undertaken at the request 
of government authorities in order that they might be just in 
their decisions. 

The State of Michigan followed Massachusetts in the estab- 
Hshment of an active Board of Health, as did Louisiana also, 
but the latter soon lapsed. 

A most important Hnk in the growth of the sanitary idea in 
America was the Act of Congress of March 3, supplemented by 
that of June 2, 1879, the first to establish a National Board of 
Health, the second to require it for five years ''to prevent the 
introduction of contagious and infectious disease into the United 
States." The American PubHc Health Association and the 
National -Academy of Sciences were named as consulting bodies, 
and the work first advised was the making of sanitary surveys 



WATER SUPPLIES 5 1 

of places remarkably unhealthy or liable to become so. The 
first Board consisted of Dr. Weir Mitchell, General Francis A. 
Walker, Dr. Wolcott Gibbs, and Prof. William Barton Rogers, 
the president of the National Academy. 

If this Board did not accomphsh what was anticipated, its 
part in the education of future leaders in sanitation in America 
should be recognized. 

Dr. H. I. Bowditch wrote on sanitary legislation. Dr. Ira 
Remsen on organic matter in air. Dr. C. F. Folsom, then secre- 
tary of the Massachusetts Board, on disinfectants. Dr. R. M. 
Kedzie on adulteration of food, Colonel George Waring on flow of 
sewers. Prof. R. Pumpelly on soils and sanitation. The second 
report contained the most elaborate account of the investi- 
gations carried on by Dr. J. W. Mallett of the University of 
Virginia, on the best method of determining organic matter in 
potable water and its effect on health. A light on the science 
of the time is thrown by the naive statement, "with the co- 
operation of three chemists each using a different method." 
Dr. Charles Smart of the United States Army prepared an exten- 
sive paper on the water supply of Mobile and water analysis in 
general. In two years the Board had spent $364,000. The 
third report brings forward two more pioneers, Rudolph Hering 
and Ernest Bowditch. The first reported on sewerage, the 
second on summer resorts. 

It will be seen that the work was somewhat discursive and 
disconnected (as scientific research is conducted to-day) and did 
not lead to such definite results as seem now to be obtained by 
a more intensive study of a limited field. In regard to certain 
lines of work, it was felt in some quarters that conclusions 
had already been reached by more scientific methods, and the 
attempt to make binding some other conclusions met with oppo- 
sition, and a charge of usurpation of authority and of extrava- 
gance led Congress to cut the appropriation at the end of the 
third year; the publication of the Bulletin was suspended at 
the end of the fourth, and the work lapsed by limitation on 
June 2, 1883; the property was transferred to the Surgeon- 



52 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

General of the Marine Hospital Service in accordance with the 
original scheme of a study of "infectious and contagious dis- 
ease and the exclusion of it from the country." The time was 
not ripe for the extended study of the causes behind disease 
such as several research laboratories are now engaged in. These, 
however, take each a small part of the field and do not try to 
cover it all. The charge of extravagance could not now be 
maintained of such modest expenditures. The education of 
the public has advanced in these thirty years and people are 
now becoming interested in their own welfare. 

Since the ideal potable water of the time was that clear, 
colorless fluid which on evaporation left no black ring of charred 
substance on a porcelain dish, it was naturally organic sub- 
stance, always high in carbon, that was held responsible for the 
danger in water. 

The determination of this organic matter, how its presence 
could be detected, the decision as to what it had to do mth 
disease, and the method of its removal, — all these were vital 
topics for discussion, and the differing views were held with 
tenacity and fought for with an acrimoniousness, happily past. 

The English work was divided into camps. The Rivers Pollu- 
tion Commission, 1859-69, evolved and used the Tidy modifi- 
cation of the permanganate process; Dr. Frankland used the 
combustion method; Wanklyn, Chapman, and Smith de\dsed 
the albuminoid ammonia determination as an indirect determi- 
nation of the organic matter, much as the agricultural chemist 
uses a factor to estimate the protein from the total nitrogen. 

By organic matter was indicated that which was combustible; 
therefore arose the term organic and volatile, which is still 
found in textbooks and reports. 

The solid residue left on evaporation in a platinum dish, when 
subjected to a dull red heat lost a certain amount in weight. 
This might be any carbon compound or moisture still clinging, 
or water of crystallization, it was all counted as foreign to good 
water. 

Then as the recognition of the part played by Hving organisms 



WATER SUPPLIES 53 

began to be suspected, there came the effort to distinguish 
between the proportion of carbon to nitrogen — the ratio being 
I to 2 per cent in vegetable, 5 to 15 per cent in animal matter. 
For a time this held the field, until it was seen that the infinite 
variety of combinations between a little vegetable and much 
animal, and Httle animal and much vegetable, made exact figures 
of Httle account. 

The small quantity usually present and the possible changes 
during concentration caused doubt as to the decisive evidence of 
the combustion method. The fact that many carbon compounds 
low in nitrogen reduced permanganate more readily than some 
known to be more probably dangerous, made both the Tidy and 
the Wanklyn processes of less convincing proof. 

With the estabhshment of the National Board of Health in 
1879-1883 the matter took again a prominent place in scien- 
tific discussion, this time naturally from a legal standpoint — 
When should a government prohibition be defended? The elab- 
orate and costly investigation of this point, including animal 
experimentation, was one of the causes which led to the aban- 
donment of the National Board, but the record of the experi- 
ments shows the difficulty of settling even the smallest points 
in organic chemistry. 

The points bearing most clearly on this question were, — Is 
the organic matter in water deadly when injected into the cir- 
culation or when taken internally? This experimentation on 
animals was among the earhest made in the country, and the 
report of Dr. Smart's work fills 164 pages of the 1882 report. 

The conclusions of Dr. J. W. Mallet were thus expressed in 
the report of the National Board of Health: 

'' Making the most liberal allowance for the imperfection of 
the different processes for the estimation of organic matter or its 
constituents, it is well worthy of notice how very small is the 
absolute amount of organic matter indicated as present in many 
of the most dangerous waters, an amount so small as to furnish 
important evidence against any chemical theory of the produc- 
tion of disease from this source, any theory based on the simple 



54 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

assumption that some of the chemical products of the decompo- 
sition of organic matter are poisonous or noxious in their effect 
upon the human system. Thus, if the whole of the organic 
carbon and nitrogen found in such waters as Nos. 35 and 36, of 
the highly dangerous character of which there can scarcely be 
a doubt, existed as strychnine, it would be necessary to drink 
about half a gallon of the water at once in order to swallow an 
average medicinal dose of the alkaloid. It is not easy to believe 
that the ptomaines, or any other chemical products of putre- 
factive change as yet observed, can possess an intensity of 
toxic power so very much greater than that of the most ener- 
getic of recognized poisons. While numerous facts go to sup- 
port the belief that, not to the effect of any chemical substances 
(such effect necessarily standing in definite relation to their 
quantity), but to the presence of living organisms with their 
power of practically unlimited self-multiplication, we must in 
all probability look for an explanation of most, at any rate, of 
the mischief attributable to drinking water, it is of course pos- 
sible that indirectly a large amount of organic matter in water 
may be more dangerous than a smaller quantity, as furnishing 
on a greater scale the suitable material and conditions for the 
development of noxious as well as harmless organisms. . . . 

" Frankland clearly expresses his view as to this evidence of 
* previous sewage contamination ' thus : 

'^ ' Large quantities [of nitrates] convict water of previous 
pollution by organic matters of animal origin. They tell only 
of the contamination which is past; but, by inference, they also 
declare the probable nature of the organic matter now present. 
. . . Whether or no the analyst should form an unfavorable 
opinion of the water from the amount of nitrates must depend 
upon the proportion of organic matter actually present, and on 
his confidence in the efficiency and uniform action of the puri- 
fying process.'"^ 

'' I. It is evident on inspection of this table for Classes I to III, 

1 From Supplement No. 19, National Board of Health Bulletin, Washington, 
D. C, May 27, 1882. 



WATER SUPPLIES 55 

that the biological methods employed will not afford the means 
of deciding between a wholesome and an unwholesome natural 
water. Several of the waters beheved to be fairly wholesome 
for human consumption, certainly in use for drinking purposes 
on a large scale, are marked 'suspicious,' while not one of the 
waters believed to have proved themselves pernicious when 
used by man are set down as 'dangerous.' 

"2. In many cases the waters which produced most decided 
effects upon the rabbits contained very large amounts of organic 
matter, so large as to probably invalidate a comparison with 
the natural waters or with much more dilute specimens of arti- 
ficial preparation. 

"3. On the other hand, we find in several instances, on com- 
paring the pathological results from three different strengths of 
a solution of the same organic material, that it is not the strongest 
which has produced the most marked effects. 

"4. In probable support of the idea that it is not mainly 
the quantity of organic matter but the presence or nature of 
low organisms which render drinking water unwholesome, such 
cases deserve attention. . . . 

'' Chemical results as to animal in contrast with vegetable organic 
matter in water. 

''i. In general the conclusions are sustained which have 
been usually drawn in regard to the source of organic matter, 
based on the more highly nitrogenous character of that from 
animal than that from vegetable debris. . . . 

^^ Evidence afforded by chemical results as to putrescent or non- 
putrescent character of organic matter in water. . . . 

"2. On the other hand. Dr. Smart has expressed the opinion, 
based upon his previous extensive experience with the albumi- 
noid-ammonia process, aside from his work with it in connec- 
tion with the present investigation, that gradual evolution of 
albuminoid ammonia indicates the presence of organic matter, 
whether of vegetable or animal origin, in a fresh, or compara- 
tively fresh, condition, while rapid evolution indicates that the 
organic matter is in a putrescent or decomposing condition. . . . 



56 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

^^Examination of water samples in general. 

''2. . . . It is very desirable that, besides examining a water 
in its perfectly fresh condition, samples of it should be set aside, 
in half-filled but close glass-stoppered bottles, for some time — 
say ten or twelve days — and one of these examined every day 
or two, so as to trace the character and extent of the changes 
undergone. Not only may conclusions be drawn from such a 
series of observations as to the general stability or decomposi- 
bility of the organic matter present, but light will be thrown 
upon the changes which may be expected to occur under ordi- 
nary conditions when the water is stored for use, as in cisterns, 
wells during periods of drought, or carelessly allowed to remain 
stagnant in pitchers, water coolers, etc. ... 

^'Albuminoid-ammonia process. 

"i. In order to avoid the uncertain ending of the collection 
of ammonia, whether 'free' or 'albuminoid,' it would be well 
to adopt the rule that the distillation be stopped when, and not 
before, the last measure of distillate collected contains less than 
a certain proportion — say i per cent — of the whole quantity 
of ammonia already collected. This would in many cases in- 
volve the necessity of replenishing the liquid contents of the 
retort with ammonia-free water. "^ 

Chemists generally attacked the subject of water analysis as 
they did that of a clay or an ore and did not consider until 
about 1885-90 that they were dealing with a new set of condi- 
tions. 

Little progress was made until some of them accepted the 
theory of ionization and applied the chemistry of dilute solu- 
tions. The great advance made in the laboratory of the Massa- 
chusetts State Board of Health was the fixing of standard rules 
of procedure. One chemist distilled off 150 cc. for free ammonia 
before adding 50 cc. alkaline permanganate and distilling for 
albuminoid ammonia, while another added 50 cc. of the alkaline 
permanganate to a second portion of 500 cc. From the readings 

1 From Supplement No. 19, National Board of Health Bulletin, Washington, 
D. C, May 27, 1882. 



WATER SUPPLIES 



57 



he obtained he subtracted the free ammonia from another por- 
tion and called the difference albuminoid ammonia. Because 
such results did not agree the process was condemned. In 

Jan. Feb. Mar. Apr. May June July Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. 



V. 1 



VI. 



VII. 



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Color. 

Oxygen Consumed . 

Loss on Ignition 



all indeterminate methods absolute uniformity of procedure is 
necessary. 

The studies made of methods of procedure resulted in certain 
rules as to quantities and times which allowed comparison to 



55 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

be made and which permitted a distinction between organic 
matter of peaty or humic origin and that in an advanced stage 
of decay presumably accompanied by the yet Hving organisms. 
Thus, a sewage-polluted water would show considerable organic 
matter, while a filtered water would not. 

One of the most valuable comparisons worked out at this 
time is shown in the accompanying chart which is the basis 
on which the interpretation of color, loss on ignition or organic 
matter in surface waters, and oxygen consumed is made, never 
one alone, but the three taken together. 

To-day the general opinion is that it is not organic matter as 
such, but organic or living forms of bacteria, protozoa, etc., and 
possibly some of the products of change as alkaloidal substances, 
which have been isolated from decomposed nitrogen substance. 

These possibilities are to be kept in mind by the progressive 
sanitary engineer and noted in his record book for future refer- 
ence, should further investigation show their importance. To 
prove the importance of this is for the investigators; the engi- 
neer's work is to keep an open mind. Further details will be 
given in laboratory directions. 

Municipalization of Water Supplies 

So far has education of the people progressed that the voters 
of many communities may be safely trusted to see that water- 
works are honestly managed for the people's good. They will 
tax themselves for public uses as well as for their own bath tubs, 
and kitchen sinks. They may make mistakes, but, in general, 
municipal ownership of waterworks is an advance over private 
supplies. For one thing, the long look ahead, which will be 
spoken of in indicated chapters as especially necessary, may be 
taken by a city when a private company with precarious tenure 
would hesitate. But great pains should be taken to keep the 
people informed, to explain harmless tastes and odors which 
may occur, instead of hushing up their presence. Here come 
into play the knowledge and wisdom of the sanitary engineer. 
He should be a trusted and not a suspected character. He 



WATER SUPPLIES 59 

should make it a part of his business to instruct as well as 
construct. 

Then, too, the city will tax itself for that moderate quality 
known as "wholesome water" rather than for the promoter's 
competitive cry, "This is the purest water," a cry which in past 
time has not infrequently led to sad results. The people are 
learning everywhere that it costs to be clean and healthy under 
modern crowded conditions. They are learning the wisdom of 
cooperation. 

Wholesome water for municipal use has been defined by the 
Pennsylvania Supreme Court as water "reasonably clear from 
dirt, discoloration and odor, reasonably free from bacteria and 
B. coli and other infection or contamination which renders it 
unfit for domestic use, and unsafe and dangerous to individuals." ^ 

This moderate requirement, if lived up to, will enable many 
cities to save money for extension of quantity. 

The pubHc discussion will be an education in itself and a 
certain sense of responsibility will inevitably develop. 

The amount of money required for the modern plant is too 
great to be accepted from private sources. The investment is 
too liable to variation in value. 

The paternal city can take care of its less fortunate citizens 
with less danger to their self-respect than can a private company. 

^ Engineering Record, Oct, 31, 1908. 



CHAPTER VI 

ECONOMIC AND SANITARY EFFICIENCY OF 
WATERWORKS 

A. Standards or Purity. B. The Water Assay; 
THE Engineer's Laboratory 

Does it pay to spend a city's tax money for water of a known 
and maintained standard? Is it a city's duty? Why not allow 
the purchase of water as of clothing at risk? For one reason, be- 
cause the city treasury suffers in an epidemic, and the community 
suffers many times more, making the cost greater than preven- 
tion. But there may not be an epidemic. So in the case of a 
water too hard or too corrosive, why not allow each manu- 
facturer to use whatever rectifier he chooses and not compel 
him to pay for a municipal water-softening plant? He may be 
a dangerous neighbor if his boiler blows up. It will cost the 
city more for inspection and for damages. 

All this amounts to but one thing. The modern city must 
pay for assurance against loss of life or of efi&ciency and conse- 
quent financial loss. It might actually take out an insurance 
policy of a few million dollars against loss by a typhoid-fever 
epidemic, let us say. This would be good economics, but there 
is a still better form of assurance. This is protection against 
epidemics — pure city water for instance. Banks have found 
the Bankers' Protective Association a decidedly profitable in- 
vestment. The village, town, or city hesitating between two 
grades of water must settle the problem by pure economic 
reasoning. They must figure the risk from the use of each 
just as the fire-insurance agent would figure his risk on the 
town hall. The better supply is of course the least risk, but 
possibly the premium required to install and operate the plant 

60 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 6l 

is more than it would be good economy to pay. The premium 
to be paid in each case must be determined from the reciprocal 
of the risk rather than from the actual risk itself. That is, 
the less the risk of infection from a certain source the greater 
the premium that it is permissible to pay to obtain that source, 
and vice versa. 

In figuring the risk from any given source of supply, every* 
thing affecting the possible economic loss to the city should be 
considered, not only fatal epidemics but minor epidemics, slight 
infections resulting in bowel and stomach disorders, causing 
temporary disability or loss of efficiency in the community's 
workers, injury to machinery or manufactures from the mineral 
contents of the water, and possibly the lessening of residential 
desirability of the town, by color, tastes, or odors in the water. 
All these depend on the quality of the water. The quantity 
should of course be figured on taking into consideration the 
possible loss engendered by lack of water for fire control or for 
industrial establishments, etc. 

Of course the figuring of such risks and the resultant eco- 
nomically correct premium is going to be by no means an easy 
task, yet it is surely possible and it is obviously practical. The 
adoption of such a conception of insurance as the guiding eco- 
nomic principle of community sanitation would not only mean 
more money, but more money more freely and more under- 
standingly given, or rather invested, by the taxpayer, as well 
as a much higher standard of efficiency in the various depart- 
ments of control. 

As the actual cost of sickness is being estimated on a higher 
basis the economy of even larger expenditure is seen. 

The engineer to-day who says, ''Pure water is the people's 
right," is right as far as he goes. He doesn't say whose right it 
is to pay for it, however, and that is just where the rub comes 
to-day in our big cities. The people all want pure water, but 
they are a long way from all wanting to pay for it. They 
must be convinced, in most cases, that by paying for it they 
are actually insuring themselves against actual financial loss, 



62 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

before they will vote for a larger issue of water bonds to raise 
the standard of quality of the water in the mains. The sani- 
tarian is all too prone to harp on the humanitarian side of muni- 
cipal improvements. In the tangled, many times compounded 
Babel of American citizenship of the twentieth century there 
is only one tongue that is universally understood, and that is 
that of money. 

Before the value of an article is set, there must be some method 
of comparison between different qualities, and in a considera- 
tion of a water supply standards of purity have been sought as 
a basis for decisions as to sources, treatment, extension of works, 
and many other details. 

A naturally treated ground water from spring or driven wells 
should be clear, cold, colorless, odorless, containing no ammo- 
nia, no nitrites, no suspended matter, therefore no bacteria, no 
dissolved organic matter. 

It may contain dissolved mineral substances even up to looo 
parts per million without rendering it unpo table. 

It will probably contain 20 to 50 parts even if derived from 
the early Archean horizon with glacier ground soil. 

The decision as to its past history depends on the variation 
of the mineral contents from the normal of the region. Excess 
of chlorine and nitrates can come only from pollution of some 
sort, up to the sewage limit of chlorine; beyond that it is prob- 
ably contaminated by sea water. 

In eastern North America excess of sodium salts also indi- 
cates contamination, while the reverse is the case in the arid 
and semi-arid regions. The history of a water must be known 
by the engineer before he recommends its use. 

Natural untreated water is that deposited from rain collected 
in streams finding its way from high collecting ground to the 
ocean by open chambers, now and then detained by resting 
places, as lakes and sluggish reaches. 

Standards of purity for such waters naturally vary from those 
for ground treated water. 

For such waters the above list of characters, clear, cold, 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 63 

colorless, odorless, sparkling, is replaced by the single require- 
ment ''free from pathogenic germs." The water may be thick 
with mud, brown as coffee, smell of fish, oil or cucumber, taste 
as flat as distilled water, and be as warm as the air, and it is 
taken in a contented spirit if it is pronounced ''safe "; that is, 
sanitary cranks take it. Conservative persons fail to see the 
reason for change of ideal, and therefore typhoid fever con- 
tinues to be spread by country wells and imperfectly purified 
rivers. 

Water is the great carrier and solvent and will extract some- 
thing from each obstacle in its flow. If it encounters a jam of 
logs, a pile of sawdust, a dead deer or fox, a barnyard or chicken 
farm, a paper mill, a village, each will leave its mark. He who 
knows will read. 

Surface water as a rule should not have more than the norm^al 
chlorine, more than .200 nitrates, or more than .010 free am- 
monia. 

The allowable albuminoid ammonia depends on the color de- 
rived from the humus, peat, leaves, etc. Other characteristics, 
as turbidity, vary with each shower. 

Artificially treated water is brought as near to the ideal clear, 
colorless, odorless standard as is possible. It is brought down 
to a certain minimum of bacteria to lessen the risk. This is a 
purely arbitrary standard, a workable rule. 

All artificial filters are hurry processes and only approximate 
the slow, natural ones in giving quality. 

The chief purpose of a filter plant is insurance to lessen 
the risk. ^Esthetic considerations usually come second; hence 
the substances that are without sanitary significance are often 
neglected. Color is one of these. The removal of dangerous 
bacteria may be accomplished without taking the color, because 
the sand filter is made of washed sand, the clay is removed, 
and the rate is very rapid as compared with natural ground 
filter. But it is possible to remove color as well as bacteria by 
the addition of chemicals. However, the standards for treated 
waters are yet uncertain. The waters themselves are receiving 



64 CONSERVATION BY SANTTATit]^ '* ' 

ever new varieties of materials, new combinations, and there 
is a shorter and yet shorter time between contamination and 
use. What effect these "repentant waters" have on the human 
system, whether there remains some subtile tendency, some un- 
recognized product from the action of the nitrifying organism, 
from the processes of conversion of the organic to the inorganic, 
is not known. 

Nature's processes are always time processes and the healing 
power of time, whether for sorrow or disease or recovery of 
water, is the largest element. Certain it is that the quick proc- 
esses to make polluted water as ''*gOQ^ .as new" have failed 
like such claims in other directions. No evidence has yet 
accumulated to show that well-filtered stored water retains 
harmful qualities. 

Numerical standards, as well as the substances chosen to be 
indicative, have varied with the varying theories of the causes 
of danger in use of the water. At the time when '' organic 
matter " was held to be the dangerous substance the amount 
of oxygen absorbed was not to exceed 0.500 part per million. 
2.100 parts indicated impure water. 

With the advent of the albuminoid ammonia theory, Wanklyn 
set 0.150 part of ammonia in a million as the allowable limit. 
When the bacterial count became the criterion 100 per cc. was 
a favorite figure. 

Putrescible organic matter is of course to be removed, but 
sterile, soluble organic matter may be food for yet other organ- 
isms farther on. The only safety is, therefore, to use such 
water at once. For mechanical filters the standard has been 
the bacterial count given above, trusting that the human ster- 
ilizing fluids will take care of the few that escape. 100 per cc. 
may be far too many to allow, but for every ten less the cost 
is increased perhaps one- tenth, and until experts can prove this 
further reduction to be necessary, the standards permitted will 
not be more rigid. 

All filtered waters should keep clear and bright with no 
development of bacteria for twelve hours. For setting the 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 65 

standard of the water the count at the instant of leaving the 
.filter is of less moment than the comit ten to twelve hours 
after. 

The physical efficiency, or as we choose to call it, the eco- 
nomic efficiency, has very frequently httle to do mth the sani- 
tary efficiency. 

Physical and chemical standards will depend largely on the 
character of the water in each case. 99 per cent of suspended 
matter should be removed. Color follows in mechanical ffiters, 
but soluble substances except calcium sulphate and carbonate 
-are not retained. Chlorine and to a considerable extent am- 
monia and nitrates are found intact in the effluent. 

Cost is a hmiting factor in modern standards. In the case 
•of grade crossings, it was cheaper to pay for a few people killed 
than to raise the tracks. So in water suppHes, it was cheaper 
to advise the boiling of the few gallons of water for drinking 
than to provide two hundred gallons a day of safe water for 
all uses. 

In ancient times the wholesomeness of the supply was deter- 
mined by animal experimentation, that is, survival of the people 
using it. 

Epidemics became more frequent with increase of population, 
imtil authorities began to ask if there was a scientific basis for 
assuming that there was real economy in spending money to 
purify the water supply. 

To-day the greater responsibility of the State for the care of 
its citizens and the greater estimate of the value of human Hfe 
have shown the real basis of this economy. 

The progress of the science at the basis of furnishing a satis- 
factory water supply is best illustrated by a few quotations. 

Standards 

Nichols, ''Water Supply,'' 1883: "... there will always be 
difficulty in deciding how near to any Hmit a suspicious water 
may come and still be used with a reasonable degree of safety. 
To condemn water without sufficient cause is of course undesir- 



66 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

able, as the procuring a different supply may involve consider- 
able expense.^ 

''Moreover it cannot be insisted on too strongly that different 
classes of water cannot be judged by the same standard, and 
the results of the analysis of waters belonging to different classes 
ought not to be put in the same table or otherwise arranged 
so as to invite comparison (the waters of the same geological 
horizon and area may be compared). 

" To fix, however, a definite standard which will apply to all 
waters and by which any one can judge of a given water from 
the numerical results of analysis is impracticable. Every doubt- 
ful water must be considered by itself with all the light that can 
be brought to bear on it." 

" Dr. Drown reporting to the Massachusetts Board of Health 
(1890) says: 'To determine whether or not a water has been, 
polluted by sewage, a chemical analysis is sometimes insufficient, 
sometimes it is superfluous. It does not need a chemical ex- 
amination to decide whether a stream has been polluted by 
sewage when one can see the sewage flowing into it.' And, 
again: 'Standards are relics of days in which the harmfulness 
of a water was supposed to be the direct result of the injurious 
action of specific substances found in it. The theory of to-day 
is that it is (in the large majority of cases) to the presence of 
micro-organisms in water that its harmful influence is due, and 
that the results of chemical analysis have their highest value 
in the light that they throw on the quality of the water from 
the standpoint of bacterial contamination.' 'An opinion re- 
garding the wholesomeness of a water must be based on all the 
information obtainable about it, such as location, environment, 
and source of the water, and the character and population of 
the drainage area.' " 

Mason, ''Water Sup ply, ''^ 1896: "The term 'standard' is 
doubtless a poor selection. A hard and fast standard is simply 
an impossibility. Results which would be considered satisfac- 

1 The Massachusetts State Board of Health has followed this rule in spite of all 
pressure. 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 67 

tory for one locality miglit be entirely inadmissible in another, 
Local standards are the proper ones by which to be guided, and 
it is to be regretted that local 'normals' are not more frequently 
found on record. 

" Mr. Reuben Haines recommended the following figures rep- 
resenting the averages of thirty-four difi'erent determinations 
of uncontaminated waters as standards for pure waters in the 
neighborhood of Philadelphia. 

Parts per million. 

Free ammonia o . 03 1 

Albuminoid ammonia o . 044 

Chlorine 11. 9 

Nitrogen as Nitrates 5 . 075 

Total solids 125.7" 

/. C. Thresh, " The Examination of Waters and Water Sup- 
plies, ^^ 1904: ''At the beginning of this discussion we have 
spoken of the doubtful value of standards of purity of water 
based on the amount of the nitrogen compounds which it con- 
tains. In the case of ground waters there is an ideal standard of 
purity which is at the same time not an impossible one, namely, 
complete freedom from unoxidized or partly oxidized compounds 
of nitrogen. We do not know, as has been already explained, 
that a water which reaches this standard is safe if at the same 
time it contains much nitrogen completely oxidized, but we do 
know that as we depart from this standard we enter the region of 
known danger. It has been a very general custom hitherto to 
set limits for each of the substances beyond which the water 
should be regarded as polluted or as unfit for drinking. 

"The application of these standards of purity made the 
interpretation of analyses a very simple matter but of very 
doubtful value. 

"Before proceeding to discuss the results obtainable by the 
various methods of analysis, let me once more emphasize the 
importance of the inspection of the source of supply, both in 
detecting possible sources of pollution and in enabling correct 
inferences to be drawn from the results of the chemical, bacte- 



68 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

riological, and microscopical examinations. This is now being 
recognized by sanitarians generally. In fact, Gruber, of Vienna, 
lays so great stress upon an examination of the source, as to 
assert that in ordinary cases even a bacteriological examination 
of the water can be dispensed with, and Flugge considers that 
an inspection carried out with the unaided senses, is the most 
desirable method, and seldom needs to be supplemented by 
chemical, bacteriological, or microscopical investigations. 

" In America, considerable stress is laid upon the systematic 
examination of surface waters by biological methods, the num- 
ber and genera (or sometimes species) of the organisms found 
being recorded. In this country little study has been made of 
the low forms of life (save the bacteria) which occur in water, 
although more reliable information as to the character of a 
water can be obtained sometimes by this method than by any 
other. 

''I am convinced that standards cannot be adopted for any 
waters, but there is very little doubt that a water which gives 
no indications of the presence of the B. coli communis in lo cc, 
of Streptococci in 50 cc.(?), and of the spores of B. enteritidis 
sporogenes in 500 cc, is at the time of examination so free 
from sewage pollution that it may be certified as safe for all 
domestic purposes, providing its source is satisfactory. 

''This standard is attained by waters from all properly pro- 
tected springs and from properly constructed deep wells. Upland 
and moorland surface waters, collected in reservoirs, I have 
regarded as satisfactory if they afforded no evidence of the 
presence of the Bacillus coli communis in a few cubic centimeters, 
and especially if the B. enteritidis sporogenes could not be 
detected in 250 cc. 

". . . As the detection of sewage or manurial contamination 
by bacteriological methods must depend upon the discovery of 
the bacteria characteristic of excremental matter, a very im- 
portant point remains for discussion, viz., the amount of water 
which should be used for the examination. Chemical analysis 
cannot be depended upon to detect pollution with i per cent of 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 69 

sewage, or with i per cent of most sewage effluents, which 
sewage effluents might practically contain all the organisms of 
the original sewage. Bacterioscopic analysis may be depended 
upon to detect a much smaller quantity of polluting matter. 
Unfortunately the number of the selected organisms found in 
sewage varies enormously, and the proportion of each to the 
others varies in every sample. In relative abundance they 
occur in the following order: Bacillus coH communis, strepto- 
cocci and spores of the Bacillus enteritidis sporogenes of Klein. 
Houston and Klein find the variations are within the following 
limits : 

Bacillus coli commiuiis 100,000 to 800,000 per cc. 

Streptococci 1,000 to 10,000 " " 

Spores of B. enteritidis sporogenes 100 to 2,000 " " 

" Assuming that efforts are limited to the detection of pollu- 
tion corresponding to one-miUionth part of sewage containing the 
minimum number of these organisms, it is obvious that 10 cc. of 
the water would be required to give indication of the presence 
of the bacillus coH, 1000 cc, or one Kter, to afford evidence of 
streptococci, and ten hters for the detection of the spores of the 
B. enteritidis sporogenes. . . . 

"On the other hand, assuming the polluting matter to contain 
the maximum number of the above organisms, one to two 
cubic centimeters would suffice for the detection of the B. coli 
communis, 100 cc. for streptococci, and 500 cc. for the spores 
of the B. enteritidis sporogenes. 

''Prof. Sheridan Delepine, 1904, lays considerable stress on 
the importance of bacteriological examinations. As there is no 
general standard of purity he selects feeders which are uncon- 
taminated, examines the water bacteriologically, and takes the 
results as a 'natural standard.' 

'^'To find such feeders,' he says, Hhe bacteriologist of course 
inspects the gathering ground himself, and after noting the 
configuration and nature of the ground, the course of the feeder, 
its relation to the slope which it drains, the absence or presence 



70 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

of cultivated areas, of paths, of houses, the possibihties of human 
traffic, the presence of cattle or sheep, he can then determine 
whether the feeder inspected is likely to be contaminated or 
not. ... It is necessarily free from any bacteria associated 
with decomposing organic matter, human or animal diseases 
(provided no carcass of a dead animal is found in its neighbor- 
hood). Such a water should be good, provided no abnormal 
chemical constituents are present. Even under these condi- 
tions water is liable to variations, according to the state of the 
weather.' " 

Turneaure and Russell ^^ Public Water Supplies " (1908, p. 126) : 
*^ Desirable as it would be to have definite standards of water 
analysis that would apply to all waters, such are nevertheless im- 
possible. The changing conditions under which various potable 
supplies occur make it altogether out of the question to have a 
standard that would be of general appHcation." 

In accordance with the tendency of each State to deal with 
its water problems through some Commission or Board, legal 
standards are being set up by which the authorities in each 
State may govern themselves in dealing with questions of pro- 
hibition of pollution or in compulsory measures of prohibition. 
The State of Pennsylvania has issued a definition of wholesome 
water (above, p. 57). 

TheState Board of Health of Illinois,^ which covers an enormous 
area with very variable soil and water conditions, has adopted 
provisional standards as its guide. Other States are virtually 
doing the same thing for legal purposes. These provisional 
standards are in the right line, changeable to meet new knowl- 
edge, but finishing a basis for compulsion in carrying out State 
law. 

Standards of Purity 

For the information and convenience of those who read this 
report, the following limits have been provisionally adopted as a 
reasonable basis for reaching conclusions regarding the whole- 

1 Bulletin Vol. 4, Number 5, May 1908. 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 



n 



someness of waters in the State of Illinois. No absolute 
standards of purity whereby to judge the condition of any and 
all potable waters can be justly established, because of differences 
due to the nature of the strata from which waters are drawn or 
with which they have been in contact, the topography of the 
district, and the general environment of the sources. 

SUGGESTED LIMITS OF IMPURITIES 

PARTS PER MILLION 



Turbidity 

Color 

Odor 

Residue on evaporation 

Chlorine 

Oxygen consumed 

Free ammonia 

Albuminoid ammonia 

Nitrites 

Nitrates 



Nitrogen 
as 



Alkalinity 

Bacteria per cubic centimeter. 
Colon bacillus in one cc 



None 
None 
None 
130. 

5-5 
1.6 

.00 
.08 
.000 
.00 



Absent 



10. 

.2 
None 
300. 
6. 
5- 
•05 
■15 
.000 

•5 
200. 
500. 
Absent 



None^ 
None^ 
None 
500. 

15- 

2. 

.02 

•05 
.000 
2 .00 

300. 

500. 

L\bsent 



None 3 
None^ 
None 
500. 
15- 

.02-3. 

. 20 

.005 

•50 
300. 
100. 
Absent 



None 3 
None 3 
None 
500. 
5. -100. 
2.-5-' 
.02-3. 

•15 
.000 

•5 
300. 
100. 
Absent 



1 Analyses of water ten miles from shore of Lake Michigan. Streams Examination Sanitary Dis- 
trict of Chicago, p. 18. 

2 This standard of purity is seldom found in the unfiltered water, as all streams are more or less 
polluted. 

3 None when drawn from wells. They may become turbid and develop color on standing. 
* Varies, as the waters contain ferrous salts. 



''The formation of a reasonable and just opinion regarding the 
wholesomeness of a water requires that there be taken into con- 
sideration all the data of the analysis together with the history 
of the water; the nature of the source; character of the soil and 
earth or rock strata, and the surroundings. The interpretation 
of results is a task for the expert. The purpose of this explana- 
tion is, therefore, merely to present to the layman such informa- 



72 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

tion as shall aid him to an understanding and appreciation of 
. the analytical da ta . " 

A marked contribution was made by Dr. Drown in the clear 
^statement of interpretation of results or, as the author expresses 
it, the diagnosis. A judgment founded on the sum total of 
the evidence given by the twenty or more chemical tests, the 
physical characters, the local conditions, and the bacterial count 
•as well as at times other special tests is the only safe one. 

This involved path of evidence requires the skilled detective 
rrather than the mere analyst. Numerical results may mean 
much or little as the circumstances exist. 

This fact is now generally recognized, and no reputable water 
^analyst will now allow himself to be induced to give results in 
terms of standards. 

In the first place, the sample must be taken so as to have 
some meaning. Any gallon of water taken anywhere along the 
stream will not do. There is to be a decided relationship be- 
tween place of collection and the inferences to be drawn from 
the analysis. 

In the second place, care must be used in collection so that no 
contaminating influence shall affect the sample — dirty hands^ 
dirty sticks or stones, etc. 

In the third place, it is usually a comparison that is needed 
xather than an absolute statement, because the identical cir- 
cumstances occur but once. 

In the fourth place, since permanence is the best assurance, 
the test of a condition favorable to change is important, that is, 
tests on incubated samples or of the original sample after a 
week's standing. 

Fifth, in studying the published results of other laboratories, 
methods of procedure should be known, since it has been true 
in the past that great differences were found. In 1897 ^ portion 
■ of the same sample of spring water was sent by the town authori- 
ties, to five chemists in three different states. The returns were 
.^s follows: 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 

Parts in 1,000,000 



73; 



Nitrogen as 


Oxygen 
consumed. 


Hardness. 


Chlorine. 


Albuminoid ammonia. 


Free 
ammonia. 




Total. 


Solution. 


Suspen- 
sion. 


Nitrites. 


iMtrates. 


.028 
.047 

.014 

.064 
.080 






.016 
.002 

.080 

.010 
.000 


.003 

.010 
less than 

.010 
nitrous 

none 

.002 


14.000 
12.000 

10.000 

nitric acid 

62.000 

12.500 


•595 


61.6 


39-0 
34-9 

31-2 i 

36.0 ; 

37 -o : 










none 
1.098 


chiefly mg. 
122.2 

67.0 
60.0 















As recently as 1900 a printed bulletin was sent out purporting 
to come from a State Board of Health with, among others, the 
following remarkable statements: 

''The following simple tests are issued in order that people 
who are not practical chemists may have a rehable method of 
detecting impurities in drinking water. • 

''(a) Good drinking water should not give any reaction with 
acid (red) or alkaline (blue) litmus paper. 

''(b) Transparency, and (c) Color. 

''Test: Fill a 6-inch test cylinder with the suspected water, and 
place it upon a white sheet of paper. Fill a similar glass with 
distilled water for comparison. Look through the water from 
the top. Any turbidity or want of transparency in the sus- 
pected water should be sufficient cause to have it condemned 
for drinking purposes, unless it be filtered and boiled. 

''(d) Odor. — Drinking water should be absolutely odorless. 

''Test: Fill a 500 c.c. (about a pint) Florence flask with water 
under examination. Heat it gently up to 43.3° C. (110° F.) or 
48.6° C. (120° F.). If any odor develops, the water should be 
condemned, as it will generally be found to contain organic 
impurities. 

"Test: Heat the residue in a platinum dish. If it is dissipated 
by heat or becomes charred, the water is unfit for use, (See 
also 2, below.) 

"Tests: (a) Chlorine may be detected : (i) By its odor; (2) By 



74 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

turning paper dipped in a solution of potassium iodide brown; 
(3) By bleaching a solution of indigo or litmus. 
. ''Tests. — Nitrates: i. When heated with sulphuric acid, they 
evolve pungent fumes of nitric acid. 

''2. When heated with a solution of ferrous sulphate and a 
few drops of sulphuric acid, a black coloration is produced. 

''3. Evaporate 4 cc. (60 drops) of the suspected water to 
dryness and add a few drops of phenyl-sulphuric acid (i part of 
carbolic acid, 4 parts of strong sulphuric acid, and two parts of 
water); if nitrates are present a reddish color of nitro-phenol is 
produced. 

" Should water become contaminated by the excreta from 
cholera or typhoid fever patients, it will respond to the tests for 
organic matter and to those for nitrites and nitrates and the 
albuminoid compounds. The microscope will be able to dif- 
ferentiate between the micro-organisms of cholera, typhoid 
fever, etc." 

As late as 1909, these were held as ofhcial in some quarters. 

Legal enactments are not infrequently effective spurs to in- 
vestigation. A notable example occurred when in 1886 the 
Legislature of Massachusetts passed an Act ''to protect the 
purity of inland waters " and gave into the charge of the State 
Board of Health the experimental and supervisory measures 
required for this efficient protection. Stimulated by this re- 
sponsibility, it instituted, for the time, a remarkable combination 
of scientific organization, engineering skill, chemical and bac- 
teriological knowledge, which resulted in ten years of most 
fruitful investigation, although at the time so much seemed 
unproductive work. 

The expenditure has been amply justified not only in the 
efficient work for the State continued along similar lines but also 
in the development of certain principles and methods which have 
served as points of departure for further investigation all over 
the world. 

The value of these investigations lies not only in their com- 
prehensiveness but in the long time given to each series to prove 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 75 

or disprove their lessons. Consecutive records of twenty-three 
years are available. Snap judgments are thus precluded. 

The student is to take the ''Outhnes " in Part II as "sub- 
ject to change without notice." The whole procedure as well 
as the theories on which it is founded is in a mobile state and 
will be for many years to come. There will be yearly need for 
revision, but that is no reason for delaying the trial of any scheme 
which promises in a given case to give inforxnation, for that is the 
end to be sought. Such information, however, must enable the 
worker to find his way — not merely give a mass of figures to print. 

On the other hand, let not the worker despise pages of printed 
figures; they often reveal facts to another set of workers, twenty 
years later, facts which have been safely buried until needed. 
Also it has happened that a sudden illumination has come from 
studying columns of figures. Such was the origin of the idea of 
isochlors, or lines of normal chlorine. 

Let the young engineer, impatient of routine work, therefore, 
not wholly despise the long columns of figures the laboratory 
files away for him. 

REPORT OF WATER ASSAY 
Parts per 1,000,000 

Address for report 
Locality- 
Date 
Description of Water 



Physical 

Examination 



Chemical 
Examination 



Remarks 



Turbidity. . 
Sediment. . . 
Color 



Free Ammonia 

Albuminoid Ammonia , 

Nitrites 

Nitrates 

Hardness 

Chlorine 

Oxygen Consumed . .. . 



76 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

The purpose of the water assay is to permit an estimate on 
certain points, as for instance: 

(i) If water is suitable at the present moment for domestic 
use, i.e., free from germs which indicate sewage pollution or free 
from those substances which accompany sewage pollution, to 
wit: " free ammonia," nitrites, odors, fermentative appearance, 
etc. It is well to examine for organic carbonaceous matters 
which may furnish food for decomposing agents (bacteria). 

(2) To determine if it has been in the past a polluted water — 
even if it is now entirely safe — what has been may often be 
again. Nitrates, excess of chlorine, excess of total solids, etc., 
testify to past history if normal water is at hand for com- 
parison. 

(3) To determine the present character of the water with refer- 
ence to its continued use or introduction as a supply. The 
analysis to be kept for reference as a control for possible 
changes. 

To the engineer's laboratory may be brought for assay — 

Safe water (supposedly) but which may be proved suspicious. 

Natural waters from uncontaminated soil or from mountain 
streams. 

. Tests may also be asked for treated samples to determine 
the success (or otherwise) of the process. 

The laboratory outfit should include the means for all this 
work on a small scale. 

A special laboratory connected with a purification plant need 
not necessarily comprise all the appliances if it has a single 
problem to deal with. 

The general laboratory should be supplied with materials for 
simple bacteria counts. Media can now be obtained of known 
quality, and the mere plating and comparison of counts is not 
beyond the average chemist or engineer. 

The economic trend so often referred to is not wholly bad — 
not at all bad if it enables a greater benefit to be conferred. 

In the case of water analysis, the old-time laborious concen- 
tration of gallons of liquid in the open laboratory regardless of 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 77 

the collection and absorption of dust and vapors, and of the 
solution of the earthen dish, in order to obtain sufficient material 
to weigh, was superseded in the latter half of the nineteenth 
century by colorimetric determinations which reduced quantities 
and times and avoided much contamination. There were, how- 
ever, few laboratories where the degree of cleanliness and exact- 
ness now recognized prevailed. Room 36, Walker, M. I. T., 
was said to be the only really clean laboratory as late as 1887. 
Certain it is that the value of the ten years of classical water 
investigation, 188 7-1 89 7, carried on in that laboratory owed 
much to the refinement of method there maintained. 

It is the engineer and not the chemist or bacteriologist who 
has the front rank to-day, and he must be, above all else, an 
economist. Why make twenty tests when five will tell him 
what he wishes to know? Why have an expensive laboratory 
when a simpler one will do five times the work of the kind he 
wishes to do? There has been great danger in this attitude 
lest the untrained engineer should think the simpler work 
always all-sufficient, the twenty tests never required. The 
fullest analyses must be made sufficiently often to estabHsh a 
base line. 

With education, the confidence of the worker has lessened, and 
a modest willingness to take the scientific attitude of ''knowl- 
edge in suspension " has made possible the trusting of an engi- 
neer with the tools of a chemist and a bacteriologist with 
less fear that he will jump to conclusions or be rash in his 
judgments. 

But a preliminary essential is that he shall have had experi- 
ence in a well-ordered laboratory, not merely have read books, 
however clearly written. Some important points can never be 
put on a black-and-white page. A student will not catch him- 
self doing a ridiculous thing as will the skilled worker watching 
him. Experience will, in the end, teach, but it is costly and 
sometimes fatal. 

A man sent out to collect samples was found using an old 
stick picked up anywhere to push the bottle down to the pre- 



78 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

scribed twelve inches below the surface. One collector, having 
broken the glass stopper, glued it together. The laboratory, 
naturally, detected the dissolved glue by the abnormal excess 
of albuminoid ammonia, but that one of the all-important series 
of samples was irrevocably lost. 

The collection and safe transportation of samples are of the 
utmost importance, as is a noting of all the surroundings of the 
spot where they were taken. 

In the mining and metallurgical professions the assay or test 
for the one or two essential values in the ore sample has been 
developed to a high degree. When gold is the question the 
assay for gold proves its presence or absence; if absent, the 
character of the rock itself has no further interest. 

In the case of the water assay, it is foreign substances that 
we look for to warn us of possible danger. The test for free 
ammonia or nitrites, for instance, if positive, gives the same 
decisive knowledge as absence of gold in the ore assay. The 
material is useless for its purpose. In neither case is further 
search precluded in another spot. 

What is the decisive test which may be included under the 
head of preliminary but decisive enough to be classed as 
assay? 

Water rightly read is the interpreter of its own history, and 
the untrained worker, not having this background, did not appre- 
ciate his own limitations. Several biologists have exceeded the 
bounds because of lack of training on the chemical side — of 
experience with great varieties of water. It is in this wider 
scope that the Mass. State laboratory had the advantage over 
the city laboratories of London, Berlin, and Paris. 

Given the trained worker, he may safely use the five instead 
of twenty tests, with the permanent standards and the field 
kit, to aid his mature judgment. 

Whatever tests are decided upon, the investigator is to bear in 
mind that the end sought is a correct diagnosis of the condition 
and of the causes of that condition. All sanitary work aims at 
prevention in future, not merely cure of present trouble. 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 79 

In doubtful cases a long series of experiments, week after 
week, month after month, will, if studied carefully, finally reveal 
the source of trouble. Therefore, the laboratory must be pre- 
pared to carry out some of the exactly comparable examinations 
without deviation of methods and solutions. 

These reports will be more elaborate in character than the 
simple water assay and more minutely follow directions. 

Whatever value is attached to the results of the lesser or the 
greater examination is dependent on the conscientious exact- 
ness in measuring and recording, the sensitiveness of the eye to 
color, absolute cleanliness, and unswerving honesty in reports. 

Water Supply Inspection 

1. The engineer's laboratory. 

2. Field work. 

3. Interpretative diagnosis. 

In the rapid development of resources, the American has fre- 
quently reversed the order of scientific procedure to the ulti- 
mate delay of good engineering as well as of good government. 

The inspection of watersheds, for instance, has often been 
intrusted to the topographer or to the surveyor, whose eyes and 
nose have not been trained in the laboratory to see things and 
to follow the scent. Hence he has to draw many important 
lessons. 

The laboratory is the elementary school where the sanitary 
engineer learns the ABC and the simple language needed. 
Here he learns to understand the signs of the trail, the broken 
twig, the plucked leaf, the flower bent by the moccasin. It is 
after the attention has been called to signs, and observation has 
been trained, that the engineer may go over the country and see 
what the careless eye fails to catch. Therefore the laboratory 
is an indispensable adjunct to the engineer's training. (The 
sanitary official will become more and more an engineer rather 
than a medical man as prevention becomes more clearly the 
duty of the community.) 

But the laboratory must be an engineer's laboratory, not the 



8o CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

old-time one of the chemist or the bacteriologist. Some one, of 
course, must go over all the steps that have led to the conclu- 
sions, but the engineer wishes to know the conclusions and how 
he may use them. Time fails for both. It is seen that the ma- 
chine is to be controlled, not built, by the engineer. 

As some one has said, the sciences are no longer in water- 
tight compartments, but flow freely from one to the other. The 
library and the laboratory are the engineer's tools as much as the 
theodolite and the transit. A certain modicum of fundamental 
chemistry — general principles and names and reactions — is 
necessary to the reading of modern scientific literature and to 
the understanding of current conversation. But laboratory proc- 
esses are highly educational. The first sanitary law — quick 
removal of all wastes — applies to clean hands, clean apparatus, 
clean methods. Sterilization of unclean bottles is still not 
uncommon. 

The water assay in distinction from a complete " water 
analysis " is intended to furnish material for the diagnosis.. 
Not all these facts may be useful, but it is best to record them 
against a possible value in the future. 

Just as in a case of sickness the physician keeps the daily 
range of the bodily temperature of his patient, since it may give 
him the clew he is seeking, so the analyst makes the determina- 
tions for free ammonia, nitrites, and chlorine, not because they 
are always significant in themselves but because they may fur- 
nish the clew to what is happening. It is the active condition 
that the sanitary engineer is looking for, what is likely to happen. 
The chemist and bacteriologist may tell what has occurred and 
what the condition at the present moment may be. The family 
asks of the physician what will be the patient's condition when 
this attack is over. The community is coming to ask the sani- 
tary engineer what will be the character of the water supply 
after this treatment. 

A noteworthy instance of an attempt at interpretation on new 
lines is the study which is, after several years' trial, now reported 
in Bulletin No. 7 of the IlKnois State Survey. 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 8 1 

Extracts from Bulletin No. y, University of Illinois, 
State Water Supply 

"If a water contains high free ammonia which is being pro- 
duced by bacterial action, one should be able to continue the 
production by supplying the suitable food material. On the 
other hand, one may have a water high in ammonia content but 
almost free from bacteria which produce ammonia. Hence there 
is no agent to cause the further production of ammonia even in 
the presence of suitable food material. This principle was tested 
first with two samples of water, one of unquestionable purity 
from a deep well and the other from a polluted stream. The 
"bacteriological analysis of the deep well water showed 80 bacteria 
per cc. on gelatin 20°, with no gas formation in glucose broth. 
The chemical analysis gave 4.5 parts per million of free ammonia. 
For the polluted stream the bacterial count was 800 per cc. mth 
gas formation from .01 cc. of the sample in glucose broth. The 
chemical analysis gave 1.2 parts per milHon of free ammonia. 

"The high ammonia in the deep well water is presumably 
derived from a deposit of glacial drift. The ammonia content 
of these two samples bears no relation to the bacterial condition 
of the waters in question. 

"This experiment not only gives a method for distinguishing 
the source of origin of the ammonia in the two water samples, 
but it furnishes a definite method for studying the significance 
of the free-ammonia determinations. 

" Although ammonia production is a very general property of 
bacteria, this table would indicate that the colon group is not 
especially active, giving even much lower results than ordinary 
saprophytes such as B. megatherium and B. mycoides. This 
finding is of significance in its relation to the interpretation of 
analytical data. High free-ammonia determinations do not, 
therefore, in any way indicate the presence of intestinal bacteria, 
l)ut are merely an indirect qualitative test for the presence of 
bacteria without giving any definite idea concerning the number 
or species present. 



82 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

^'A preliminary test was made upon the same samples of 
water used in the free-ammonia experiments : namely, a polluted 
creek and a deep well. Except where otherwise noted the fol- 
lowing technique has been uniformly employed throughout these 
experiments : 

''The medium used was an ordinary meat extract broth of 
double concentration with an acidity of 2 per cent of normal acid, 
and to this was added 2 per cent of gelatin and 0.05 per cent 
sodium nitrite. Precautions were taken to adjust the final 
acidity before adding the sodium nitrite in order that any loss 
of nitrite during heating and sterilization might be uniform in 
different lots of media. No attempt was made to introduce 
inhibiting agents into the medium, though preliminary results 
with ammonium chloride and glucose indicated that these sub- 
stances might be used to advantage. Instead of the i per cent 
concentration of glucose used in the fermentation tests, it ap- 
peared that concentrations of 10 per cent or even 20 per cent 
might have some slight selective action in the presumptive gas 
tests. Five cc. of the broth were measured accurately into test 
tubes. Intermittent steriHzation was employed. The medium 
was stored at a temperature of 8°, and under these conditions it 
was solidified. Inoculations were made with i cc. quantities 
of the waters to be tested, or where pure cultures were used, 
bacteria were inoculated directly without correcting for the 
volume of i cc. used in the water sample. As in Table III, 
letters and numbers after the bacterial species indicate cultures 
from different sources. Incubations were carried on at from 37° 
to 39° C. for forty-eight hours. 

" The nitrite determinations were made by the customary 
naphthylamine-hydro-chloride and sulphanilic acid color method. 
It was originally planned to make careful quantitative analyses, 
but the differences were so pronounced that this was unneces- 
sary. The data in the tables represent only approximate determi- 
nations. 

" Analyses of the polluted creek and the well water gave 
results as follows: 



EFFICIENCY OF WATERWORKS 83 

Nitrogen as Nitrites. 
Parts per Million. 

Pure Well 25 

Polluted Creek o 

Sterile Media 25 

'^ This experiment was repeated three successive times with 
similar results. 

'^ Experiments by the first method gave well-marked differences. 
In the case of four dug wells representing moderate pollution, the 
time required for the complete destruction of the nitrites varied 
from eighteen to thirty-six hours. Upon deep-driven and care- 
fully protected dug wells the time was much longer, ranging from 
four days to two weeks. 

''It is possible, of course, that reducing substances such as 
dissolved oxygen in the inoculated water sample, might be re- 
sponsible for the changes which occur. This possibility is prac- 
tically ehminated in cases where pure cultures are used. For the 
water samples, control tests also showed that bacterial growth 
is the essential factor. 

" The estimation of the value of any tests in water analy- 
sis frequently presents considerable difficulties. If the test is 
applied directly in routine work, where a large number of samples 
are examined, extreme waters give definite results, but variation 
will occur in the important border-line cases." 

The author beHeves very strongly in the significance of the 
simultaneous presence of free ammonia and nitrites as a valuable 
aid in the diagnosis. There are some indications pointing to the 
presence of urine as a precursor of the appearance of nitrites. 
In a solution containing both ammonia and nitrate the reduc- 
tion of nitrate to nitrite takes place much more quickly than 
the oxidation of the ammonia. Variations in the percentage 
of dissolved oxygen will affect the results more than any other 
conditions besides the presence of fermenting substances. 



84 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Sanitary Analysis 

1. Detection of substances dangerous to health. 

2. Detection of substances indicating a probable or possible 
danger. 

3. A series of standard or normal determinations to serve as 
a base for 2. 

No. 2 is in the nature of a diagnosis; no method is likely to 
make one test of supreme value, for value lies only in the series 
and in the relation of each to the rest. Hence the effort of 
the past three years has been to secure standard methods so 
that the work of one laboratory may be compared with that "of 
another and in order to detect changes. 

The test of a sample of water may be for the purpose of de- 
ciding upon its suitability for domestic use, — drinking, cooking, 
laundering, — for manufacturing, boilers, production of steam, 
or for dyeing. Or there may be required a test of water from 
filtration plants, sewage purification works, etc., to decide how 
badly a stream is polluted. 

The tests for the presence of dangerous substances include 
those for arsenic, lead, etc. 

Certain substances not harmful in themselves may indicate 
the presence of organisms which are harmful, such as ammonia 
and nitrites. Chlorine and nitrates, on the other hand, show 
that the soil through which the water has percolated has been 
polluted. 

This exercise of judgment in the practice of drawing conclu- 
sions from insufficient data is an important one, for the engineer 
should be able to decide when the data are insufficient in order 
to refuse to give an opinion. 



CHAPTER VII 

Protection of Water Supplies as a Conservation 

OF Natural Resources. Watersheds and. 

Prospecting for Additional Supplies 

By 1877 the preliminary survey of the drainage basins of 
Massachusetts was concluded and the opinion reached that 
while there were some things to be remedied, " as a whole through- 
out the State the evil from the pollution of streams is small 
compared with that arising from the accumulation of filth in 
cesspools and accumulations near dwelhngs." . . . "In order to 
encourage towns ... it will be necessary to regulate rather than 
wholly prohibit the contamination by filth of our waters." . . . 

In 1887 there were one hundred and twenty- three sources of 
pubHc water supply, furnishing 82 per cent of the population, 
fifty ground waters, seventy-three surface waters, only five 
streams. 

The oversight of these was given to the State Board of Health 
instead of to a separate Rivers Commission, and it was enjoined 
especially to prevent further pollution and to advise towns as to 
means of prevention. 

Protection of water supplies as a conservation of natural 
resources means (i) Clean soil and prevention of fouling; (2) 
Husbanding rainfall by storage; (3) Legal protection of the 
storage basins. 

The carrying further of the idea of prevention as both a sani- 
tary and an economic measure involves the long look ahead in a 
close study of watersheds both for quantity to be available in 
years to come and for quality maintainable according to the 
standards already discussed. 

Husbanding of Rainfall by Storage. Water-supply problems 
have changed in the last one hundred years from the securing of 

8s 



86 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

a gallon or two of ''pure " water for drinking and cooking to 
thirty gallons for cleanliness and one hundred to two hundred 
gallons for manufacturing or transportation purposes. At pres- 
ent it is all drawn from the same source and returned as dirty 
water for the use of another community. Just how dirty the 
supply may be allowed to become is one of the burning questions 
of the day. When commercial interests are 98 per cent of the 
whole, the 2 per cent interest in the health of the people is apt 
to be disregarded, and only the high .commercial value being 
now set upon human brain and energy has brought the question 
to a business point. It is slowly being recognized that safety 
of human life is to be considered in the advance of mechanical 
and manufacturing processes. Accidents on the one side and 
conditions of living on the other are robbing the nation of thou- 
sands of valuable citizens. 

Air and water are two of the conditions now most before the 
world. It is being shown that in terms of human life it will 
pay to care for the water supply. Just how much that means 
we shall see later at the point of intensive interest — the great 
cities. The question of pure " water may be dismissed. There 
is no such supply available. All abundant sources, rain, lakes, 
streams, wells, have been contaminated. The deep unpolluted 
sources from rocks and sands, so-called artesian wells, contain 
for the most part large amounts of mineral salts, and in most 
regions such sources are not sufficient, so that impounded rain 
is the chief supply of most large cities. 

Water is the universal solvent and the common carrier; hence 
anything is liable to be found on or in it, — animal, vegetable, 
mineral. 

There is held to be less danger from mineral substances, 
unless near arsenic works or lead mines. ■ Vegetable decay used 
to be held responsible for malaria, and even now waters carrying 
much dead organic matter or those highly colored are looked 
upon as suspicious, but animal matter is in disrepute the world 
over, both on account of the disease germs which may accom- 
pany it and on account of the solubiHty of its more or less 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 87 

alkaloidal compounds which may prove depressants of vitality 
if not direct poisons. 

Certain things should be borne in mind: — (ist) that at times of 
low water surface supphes are subject to vegetable growths of 
which they may show no trace at high water. 

Ground supphes are subject to contamination in low-water 
times from sewage which may be held back in high water. 

If it is true that good water is becoming scarce and that water 
pure and undefiled is as nearly gone as the coal supply, it be- 
hooves the nation not to think of a substitute as in the case of 
coal, but of a more provident manner in its use. 

However, unused land is rare; even public domains have 
travelers, and careless travelers, as fire ravages show. It is 
no longer safe to assume that mountain streams are clean, and 
irrigation is making unused water scarce. 

Wastes must be disposed of somehow, and soil, air, and water 
are all unclean. 

In man's hurry to get through with his inheritance, he cannot 
wait for nature to filter, so he adopts nature's methods with a 
hurry attachment. 

The impurities are either coarse or fine — either mineral, 
vegetable, sohd or in solution, harmless or poisonous, but im- 
purities all the same. 

Some wdll settle out if left in quiet; some may be strained out. 
Some must be caught and clotted and some must be actually 
filtered through the finest net. It is a mistake to say that 
water once soiled can ever be made ''pure " again. It may be 
made clear if turbid, palatable and colorless if disagreeable and 
brown, safe if suspicious or dangerous, but that does not mean 
pure. However, accepting it as a conventional term, since 
neither rain water nor the best spring water is really pure, 
"purification," as used, means renovating spoiled water — almost 
as good as new. 

Man has made himself much extra trouble by reckless waste 
of nature's provision. The rain has been allowed to flow away 
to the sea without doing its full work. Ten gallons have been 



88 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

used and fouled where one would have served. Pipes have 
leaked and water run to waste. Used water has been allowed to 
soil many times its volume in good water. Crops have thirsted 
for water which might have refreshed them and brought a portion 
of food as well. 

The future is to bring more care for both quantity and quality 
as bearing on the food supply as well as the health of the people. 
Even wash waters may be turned to increasing national wealth. 

Because, through ignorance of biological principles, the first 
attempts at sewage farming failed, it is not wise to neglect so 
positive a source of income, but it is largely the water that is of 
great value, and while the plant food it carries is of minor con- 
sequence, yet it is in a most available form. When more is 
known of the office of mineral matters in plant growth, these 
''farms " may be better carried on. 

Just as insurance companies balance facts and probabilities 
and count on a law of chance, so the sanitary engineer is to be 
called upon to balance the two risks, damage to business and 
damage to health. 

Men have refused to insure and come through life safely.. 
Also others have lost their all in a month. 

It is the province of the future sanitary engineer to make good 
his promises to protect both business and health, till that time 
when both interests will become identical. 

To do this the following questions are essential. 

How contaminated may a water be by business uses before 
the sanitarian protests and the authorities demand protection for 
the people? 

How bad may a water get before it must be treated? 

How may it be treated and how much is the insurance policy 
to cost? 

The following table shows the quality of water which various 
cities have found at hand, to use or to treat. 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 
PARTS PER MILLION 



89 





Ammonia 


Nitrites. 


Nitrates. 


Hardness. 


Chlorine. 


Free. 


Alb. 


Burlington, Vt 

Minneapolis. 


.010 
.072 
.000 
.050 
.088 
.016 


.138 
.298 
.084 
.170 
.136 
.138 


.0000 
.0000 
.0020 
.0040 
.0010 
.0020 


.0100 
Trace 
.0800 
.2890 
.0180 
.0770 


42.0 

136.0 

35-1 

3-0 

7.0 


1.4 
2.0 
3-5 
4-5 
8.7 
1.4 


Passaic, N. J 


Schenectady, N. Y. . . . 

Gloucester, Mass 

Springfield, Mass 



Meteorological. 



Geological. 



Sources of Water Supplies 

Various conditions which cause contamination or pollution. 
Like air, water is in constant circulation, rising 
from the sea and from all vegetation and earth 
surfaces in the form of pure vapor; carried by winds to high 
altitudes, condensed by cold, and precipitated through the earth's. 
dusty, gas-thick atmosphere in the form of rain or 
snow, in anything but a pure condition. This pre- 
cipated rain soaks into the dirty soil and, by the great solvent 
power of water, dissolves whatever is soluble. 

A larger part of the rainfall in temperate zones washes the 
leaves of trees, the fields of grain, the roofs of houses, the streets 
of cities, the farmyards, the fertilized fields, the dump heaps,. 
and flows in channels to the large lakes and the sea to begin its 
course again. 

Water for domestic use is drawn from either the ground 
circulation or the surface flow. In pioneer regions that ground- 
filtered and cooled water was searched for and camped by, which 
flowed in sparkling volume, as springs. Such water may have 
traveled miles and been in the earth layers dozens of years, and 
become charged with tons of mineral substances, but it was 
usually free from organic matter, and if it ever carried any 
''germs," time and cold had destroyed them. Hence in pioneer 
times in temperate and tropical areas such spring water was 
the ideal drinking water, clear, cold, sparkling, pleasant to the 
taste. 



90 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

In contrast to the muddy, warm, ''flat" water of streams 
which primitive and pioneer peoples have used only as laundry 
tubs and sewers, one has only to travel in uncivilized lands to 
understand the preference for ''springs" and the early worship 
of these fountains of life. 

The nineteenth century, with its inventions, changed the habits 
of the people to such an extent as to exert a marked influence 
on the character of such apparently permanent 
Changes due features. 

to Mechanical _ ... . . , . 

Processes. Famihes no longer gathered at streams to wash 

themselves and their apparel. They dug wells 
near by their permanent homes and allowed that surface water 
which soaked from barnyard, garden, and near-by fields to collect. 
They were lucky if they tapped an underground source flowing 
from distant collecting grounds to dilute this supply. The 
quality of this water was dependent on the geological character 
of the rock and rock debris, the kind of cultivation, and most of 
all on the habits of the occupants of the homestead. 

If they took pains to carry the waste water some distance, it 
was well cleaned before it soaked back. It they allowed it to 
penetrate the ground near by, it was often only partly cleaned. 
Time and distance are factors to be reckoned with. 

Then came the house tank for supply to bathroom and toilet, 
with the necessary concomitant, the leaching cesspool at twenty 
to fifty feet from the well. Trouble was thus invited by the very 
means which civilization has been most proud of, cleanliness of 
person and belongings. 

As in every other advance of mankind, the knowledge of right 
and safe methods has been gained at the expense of human life 
and suffering. As more people living on an acre of land needed 
more water, supplies were sought for and brought from a distance, 
and carried away in drains after using. At first these were 
surface waters flowing by gravity, the people using the wells in 
their own back yards. 

More cities grew up and polluted the sources. Thickly settled 
•countries allowed wastes to percolate through rock crevices in the 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 91 

hills and valleys until it is now a rare occurrence to find an 
uncontaminated water within two hundred miles of any town. 
By uncontaminated I mean a water which shows no evidence 
of past pollution. 

The fouling of water supplies like the Httering of streets is a 
result of selfish carelessness, which reacts on the doer. 

It is mainly ignorance and a clinging to traditional half 
truths, like "the ground is the purifier," ''out of sight, out of 
mind." 

Since all water (except cistern water) comes in contact with 
earth, flowing over it or through its interstices, dissolving, wash- 
ing, wasting, leaching, and transporting, the char- 

, ,. . ^ , ., r ^ Clean SoU. 

acter and condition of the soil are of the utmost 
importance as regards the purity of water. 

Much if not most of the danger from impure water comes 
from habits of people as regards soil. 

Theories of purification by earth were very crude until about 
1880 and the discovery of the nitrifying organism. 

Watersheds 

A. Prospecting for additional supplies. 

B. Inspection and care of surface and tributaries. 

C. Conservation of certain clean underground waters for 
domestic use. 

All successful mining operations include "prospecting" — a 
careful exploration of the whole tract, both superficial and by 
drilhng, to ascertain the extent of the resources at command. 

Available water is a mineral resource in several senses. Pure 
ice is an actual crystalline mineral and pure water is mineral 
in its composition. Like the precious metals there is only so 
much water in existence and man is totally dependent on na- 
ture's supply. The conservation of this natural resource is 
becoming one of man's important duties. The municipalizing 
and federalizing of water plants makes it possible to use methods 
of investigation for future supplies. The rainfall may be con- 
served or wasted. 



92 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

The quality may be maintained or allowed to deteriorate. 
Which shall it be? 

Prospecting for a Town Water Supply. The profound influ- 
ence which the geological and topographical conformation has 
on the water supply at any given spot, as well as the effect the 
surface soil has upon the water collected in the area, makes 
these studies of the first importance. Naturally this investiga- 
tion must be carried out in the field. 

The party may well consist of three persons — a geologist, a 
topographic engineer, and a sanitary engineer with a degree of 
chemical and biological experience. The sanitary engineer is 
the leading spirit. He knows the aims of the survey and he 
should know enough of the economic conditions to appreciate 
results. In any new undertaking there will be social and legal 
problems to be considered, buildings to be moved, lands to be 
overflowed, water rights to be acquired, complaints to be antici- 
pated. 

A. Prospecting for Additional Water Supplies 

This field work, sanitary survey as it is sometimes called, has 
two objects: (i) the search for quantity; (2) the inference as to 
lasting quality. 

Since the total supply of water on the earth is limited by the 
rainfall and the available supply by atmospheric and geological 
conditions, the engineer must avail himself of meteorological 
data — rainfall records of at least fifty years, cycle of wet and 
dry years, etc. The quantity of rainfall in a given year may be 
distributed somewhat evenly in time and downpour, or may 
come in deluges at long intervals — the total quantity may be 
two inches or less over desert and alkali plain, or three hundred 
to six hundred inches in tropical countries. Panama and Costa 
Rica are giving illustrations of excess of water. 

The fertile temperate regions of the globe, the great food belt 
of the world, receive annually forty to sixty inches of rain, 
equivalent to about six hundred to eight hundred milKon gaflons 
of available water per square mile. 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 93 

Since this area contains much arable land, it is probable that 
about one-half the rainfall will sink some three feet below the 
surface; a portion, depending on character of rock formation, 
position of strata, etc., will penetrate depths hundreds of feet 
below the surface. About one quarter of the rainfall in the 
temperate zone may flow over the surface without having soaked 
the ground for more than six inches in depth or six hours in 
time. The remaining quarter will, in forested and arable re- 
gions, be evaporated from the leaves of trees and crops and from 
bare soil. 

In one of the western states, it has been estimated that one 
hundred tons of water are needed to raise one ton of crops. The 
desert air has been shown to take up from water surfaces seven 
or eight feet a year where the rainfall was less than ten inches. 

The study of water circulation is a science by itself, hardly 
established as yet, but of the utmost importance, as will be 
considered later. 

The prospector is concerned with the evidence he can collect 
from observation and in some cases by boring. 

The rain water, as it falls on the earth, tends at once to find 
the lowest level and to flow back to the ocean whence for the 
most part it came. The speed it makes is lessened by the 
obstructions it meets — impervious rock, broken strata, deep 
fissures, fine clay, etc. The rate of surface motion is greatly 
modified by the slope of the land. The force of gravity pulls 
water down, while capillarity pulls it up, hence evaporation 
from arable soil and plants. 

The underground circulation of water is a mystery to the 
average man, and his ignorance is the cause of many of his ills. 
Although he knows that surface water flows approximately hori- 
zontally, it seems to him that the perpendicular rain must con- 
tinue down in the same direction instead of being deflected 
almost at once in a lateral direction. Else, why does he place 
wells and cesspools within a few feet of each other and express 
such indignant surprise at the proof that their waters mingle? 

The art of a Sherlock Holmes is often needed to draw out the 



94 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

facts affecting soil and water pollution, the habits of the com- 
munity, and their attitude toward the need of conservation and 
toward the legal aspects of the care of watersheds. 

Just as in prospecting for ore deposits, so in looking for drain- 
age horizons, boring, cross-cutting, and trenching are often needed, 
and bore holes, perhaps ditches, and certainly wires and sound- 
ing lines come into use. 

One visit will not suffice. Unexpected appearance, excep- 
tional meteorological conditions must be taken into account, the 
cycle of wet and dry years, the position of the time of examina- 
tion in that cycle. All these things take time; not less than two 
years, and probably longer, will suffice for a reasonably clear 
idea of the quality of a given watershed as a source of supply. 
No genuine mining company is satisfied with a less thorough 
report and no town should risk the lives of its citizens with less. 
Tests should be continued over a long enough time to prove 
either variability or permanence. One test or several in one 
season is not enough. 

B. Inspection and Care of Surface and Tributaries 

Field work may be made instructive to the communities in a 
way which shall help to make that solid public opinion which 
sustains improvement work. 

It is not enough, as has been found by sad and costly experi- 
ence, to engineer beneficial reforms, to plan and construct. It 
is the daily use which tests the scheme, and if the inhabitants of 
the district are hostile or even unsympathetic or perhaps only 
ignorant, any water-improvement scheme is likely to fail of its 
object. 

For instance, the residents on the watershed of a lake taken 
for a water supply are simply made stubborn by a law which 
forbids boating, bathing, and fishing. It seems to them aimed 
at their rights. They honestly believe in most cases that it 
is aristocratic nonsense. As one CaKfornia countryman said: 
'' This is all graft. The Board of Health wants to get good fat 
salaries, so they get up a scare and we have to pay for it." 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 95 

The sanitary education of the people proceeds slov/ly — more 
slowly than we know. Deep down in their hearts most of them 
consider the reforms only passing fads. Therefore, each en- 
gineer should constitute himself a missionary at every oppor- 
tunity. 

The greater good of the greater number should not bhnd the 
investigator to the needs of the individuals. Instruction as to 
how to improve conditions, and explanations as to why they 
ought to be bettered, must be given at every opportunity. Here 
is a call for tact and forceful personahty. 

The possible removal of contaminating causes, farmyards, 
factories, the probabihty of new enterprises, the distance around 
the reservoirs to be owned by the city, the quantity collected 
in dry years, effect on tastes and odors of raising and lowering 
the shore line, trolley lines, picnics, summer resorts, all add their 
quota to the problem. 

Lakes and reservoirs should be tested in midsummer as well 
as in cold weather for evidences of layering and consequent 
deficiency of oxygen. 

Much is learned of the contributing causes when a careful 
inspection is made of the small streams, pools, etc., since any 
water supply (in large quantity) is derived from numberless 
small sources. Seepage is in some cases one-third the total. 
The prospector should be able to trace the greater part of these 
additions, for the nitrates this class may bring in are food for 
the pests of reservoirs, — algae. 

Many a water supply has been spoiled beyond recovery for 
want of this foresight. As in all sanitary work, prevention is 
more effective than cure. A- reservoir once seeded is at best 
forever a trial. 

The country population is thoughtless and has not had the 
consequences of its careless habits pointed out. In the begin- 
ning certain streams should be diverted and swamps cut out 
before the mischief is done. 

It is a fashion to say: "Oh, better let everything go in and 
then filter." The complete purification for safety is as yet un- 



96 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

known. Comparative safety is all that can be demanded, and 
too late it may be discovered that a little foresight would have 
saved money and lives. 

In discussing watersheds, it must be borne in mind that there 
are three great divisions geologically and topographically in 
North America: (i) The once glaciated region full of lakes and 
tributary mountain streams, north of 40 degrees — a region of 
abundant water, as a rule cold and frozen in winter, frequently 
attaining 72 or 75 degrees F. for a short time in summer. 

(2) The Appalachian and southern slopes, below 40 degrees 
North Latitude, over which the products of ages of rock disin- 
tegration have for the most part remained in situ, covered by 
vegetation and liable to erosion, furnishing turbid streams. 
This is a lakeless region and all reservoirs are artificial, the 
supplies from streams or deep wxlls, sometimes artesian. 

(3) The so-called arid and semi-arid regions, where the rain- 
fall is less than ten inches and sufficient supply is brought from 
a distance or derived from underground stores, laid up in past 
ages, liable to be exhausted by lavish use, as Denver used its 
forty years' collections in twenty. 

C. Conservation of Certain Clean Underground Waters 
TOR Domestic Use 

Principles of conservation must vary and standards of allow- 
able supply must be somewhat dependent on possibilities. The 
soft, colored, corrosive water of eastern and northern America 
may be conserved without much treatment. The muddy, often 
harder waters of the South must be settled or filtered or both, 
for domestic and industrial use. The saline, often alkaline waters 
of the arid areas and their borders may be most profitably 
distilled for the table and treated for industrial purposes. 

Most farmers know of the "hardpan," or impervious clay 
layer, which in many regions divides the deep waters from the 
shallow circulating waters. It is these latter, whose upper sur- 
face is called the ''water table," which easily become polluted 
from the surface. Their movement is in a diagonal direction 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 97 

toward the lowest outlet, the speed from two inches to two feet 
a day according to the porosity of the soil. These waters col- 
lect an infinite variety of contributions on their course. They 
also dissolve whatever soluble substances come in their way. 
If undisturbed they flow out in the banks or bed of the nearest 
watercourse or gully. 

It is these underground sheets of water that are tapped by 
shallow wells (sometimes they collect in hollows scooped by the 
ice sheet and filled with gravel); in glaciated regions this is a 
common source. These basins depend on the rainfall of a lim- 
ited area and these wells go dry in dry times and are frequently 
dangerous. The slow percolating movement is the only safe- 
guard for farmhouse or village supphes, and this depends on the 
porosity of the soil. Even town supplies have been drawn 
from these ground sources. They serve for a limited use, but 
if drawn on heavily the movement is hastened, not allowing 
time for the changes, and as the area is increased the quahty 
deteriorates. 

The care of wells used more or less by the public — town 
well by the country store, schoolhouse wells, factory wells, our 
neighbor's well — all have at times failed to pass the tests. 
Great-grandfather's well served for the gallon a day that a person 
of 1776 required, but not for the one hundred used by city- 
bred grandchildren of 1910. 

Density of population has changed conditions to such an 
extent that, even in village communities, wells are in close 
proximity to cesspools, stables, hen yards, intensively cultivated 
gardens, and other sources of pollution. 

There is a limit to the amount of pollution a given cubic foot 
of soil will dispose of in a given time. It is time that the mod- 
ern citizen will not give. It is only a thoroughly model filter, 
like Lawrence No. 2, which will, year after year, take a dose of 
city sewage in the morning and deliver good '' spring water," 
clear, sparkling, and low in bacteria, the next morning, with five 
feet of filter material, and bacteria trained to their work for 
twenty years. 



98 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

The retaining power of the soil is great, and rather than 
wait to wash out the accumulated salts, it is usually best to 
seek a new source. However, our records show several wells on 
abandoned farms which five years have restored to nearly their 
original value. 

The farmer is more likely to be alarmed at a certain peculiar 
''fiat" vegetable odor which results from the presence of thirst- 
ing tree roots than at more serious drain contamination. The 
latter is protected from change by dark and cold and absence of 
green plants. It is this subtilty that has made sanitarians so 
suspicious of wells. In a recent milk-borne epidemic some 
firms sent out their inspectors to examine the farm premises 
supplying milk. The percentage of good wells was alarmingly 
small. 

The annual report of the Health Commissioner of the State 
of Virginia for the year 1909 states that "the absence of 
practically all legislation on the subject has resulted in a 
gross neglect of many important considerations. There is not 
a statute on the books of the State to-day requiring any 
regulation or protection of water supplies other than an old act 
prohibiting the throwing of dead bodies into any stream or on 
any watershed." 

The hundreds of thousands of wells throughout the States 
can never be individually inspected. People must accordingly 
be taught the essentials of protection in order that they them- 
selves may apply them without outside aid. 

So wedded to the idea of well water are most people that the 
health officers frequently are compelled to resort to the expedient 
of dosing a well with kerosene to prevent its use. 

Jordan, Winnipeg report, says ''the highly offensive stenches 
arising from decomposing matter in sewers have often been shown 
to exercise a depressing and weakening influence upon human 
vitaHty. . . . Under certain conditions, an individual may be able 
to resist infection even when typhoid bacilli enter the ahmentary 
canal; the same individual, when in a weakened state, may be 
unable to ward off invasion. 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 99 

''An element of special danger exists in the accumulation of 
night soil that has been removed from the city privies and placed 
above the town at the 'dumping grounds.' On two occasions 
in the same year when the raw Assiniboine River water passing 
these ' dumping grounds ' was turned into city mains to eke 
out the supply a distinct rise in typhoid fever occurred." 

"It must be remembered, however, that in sanitary matters 
the welfare of one section of the city is inseparably connected 
with that of another. The interests of the community so far 
as pubKc health is concerned are not restricted by geographical 
or social boundaries." 

The pollution of the water supply was detected last summer 
in an unusual manner by one of the sanitary engineers of the 
New York State Department of Health.^ "A village constructed 
works drawing a supply from a spring rising in a shaly limestone 
formation. One day this spring suddenly dried up, and an 
investigation was made to ascertain the reason for the sudden 
cessation of the supply. It was finally discovered that in another 
watershed, about a mile from the spring, there was a small 
stream fed by a lake. During dry weather the flow in this 
stream was so small that practically all of it disappeared in a 
fissure in the limestone; so a neighboring farmer, who required 
the water for his stock, dammed up the stream and pre- 
vented any further passage of the water into the fissure. This 
was done about the time that the stream went dry. Analyses 
of the water in the stream and of the water obtained from the 
spring when the stream was allowed to fill the fissure, proved 
conclusively that the water passed through the seams of the rock 
for the intervening mile. More important than this, the analyses 
demonstrated that the supply itself was polluted, something that 
would not be suspected in spring water drawn from a wooded 
watershed like that in question. This is a remarkable long- 
distance record of the flow of polluted water, and compares, in a 
way, wath the results of the investigations made in connection 
with the Paris water supply a number of years ago, when certain 
* Engineering Record, June 25, 19 10. 



lOO CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

springs from which water was supplied to that city were found 
to be polluted by conditions existing far from the point where 
the water emerged from the rock. As a rule, pollution of such 
springs arises from sources within a distance of a quarter of a 
mile or less, but this recently discovered case shows that where 
water is drawn from fissured rock it is advisable to analyze it or 
at least to trace its source to considerable distances, in order to 
be certain that the supply is uncontaminated." 

An Example of Polluted Water from ■ , Massachusetts. 

''Collected Sept. 9, 1908, 7 a.m., from well 15 feet from house 
coming to pump through lead pipe in all from bottom of the well 
about 60 feet. 

''The well is 63 feet from our own cesspool and 68 feet from 
neighbor's cesspool, all on about same level of ground. Waste 
water enters our own and neighbor's cesspool from sinks and 
water-closets, our own used but little as we have an outhouse 
used mostly by us, the deposit of which is received by a box 
emptied occasionally. Before using the box, 55 feet away from 
the well, the water in summer was offensive to smell and taste, 
but I am not sure there was especial change near the time of 
putting in the box. Before the box was added the deposit went 
on to the ground." 

Report on the Sample. 

" Boston, Sept. 10, 1908. 

" Dear Sir: — The sample of water was received in good condi- 
tion and has been examined, with the following results: 

" The odor is disagreeable, indicating contamination. The 
appearance is sHghtly milky, increasing on standing, also indi- 
cating contamination. Little fresh-water surface organisms are 
visible to the naked eye, indicating a direct access of surface 
drainage to the well. The 'free ammonia' is .600 part per 
1,000,000, which proves pollution when taken with the other 
results, as nitrites .015, chlorine 14, nitrates 7.800, and hardness 
58. A good drinking water should have no ammonia or nitrites. 
This water shows nine times as much chlorine as the normally good 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES lOI 

waters about give. Human wastes always yield much salt 

(chloride of sodium), both from cooking and from bodily wastes. 
Cattle do not eat as much salt, and because the nitrates are twenty 
times as high as they should be, I should suppose there must be 
some barn drainage in the water. The sum of all the tests 
shows that the water is wholly unfit to drink, and I see nothing 
for it but to abandon the well and find another source of 
water. It would take years to wash the soaked soil free from 
these objectionable substances if all the cesspools, etc., were 
removed. Besides, the water carries sufficient lead to make it 
dangerous. You may be very thankful that you have escaped 
without fatal illness. I have added the test for lead without 
charge." 

These shallow wells are not a suitable reliance. It is only 
when found in the deeper layers — much older water — stored 
in the ground for years and traveling hundreds of miles, per- 
haps, that water is to be depended upon; even then mineral 
substances may be in excess. Some of the deep waters in Europe 
have been known for two thousand years to be the same in 
quahty and yearly flow. But most American supplies are soon 
lessened, if pumped. 

In surveying a watershed, the outflow of all small springs 
should be tested for hardness, chlorine, nitrates. The results 
will indicate the collecting ground and often enable the observer 
to trace the source and direction of concealed channels. The 
surface configuration more often conceals than reveals the under- 
ground flow. 

The seepage or lateral flow from soil into stream and from 
stream into soil is an important factor. 

Rainfall on the earth for ages before man's occupation was 
probably in much larger quantity than at present, and the frac- 
tion that found its way into the deep layers from which we are 
now drawing, or that was imprisoned during the processes of 
solidification of the rocks, must have been considerable. 

The deep sources, 500 to 5000 feet, appear to be for the most 
part free from organic matter and often of the most desirable 



I02 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

quality for drinking purposes. To use such waters for manufac- 
turing and flushing purposes seems a waste of precious material — 
such clean and safe sources should be guarded as valuable assets. 

Ground water from deep borings has been successfully found 
in many localities. Like oil, it may not be permanent. 

In the case of underground supply, determination must be 
made of the extent of the flow and the change in quality which 
prolonged pumping may bring, causing quicker movement, and 
yielding more iron, more solids, etc. 

The depth of the water table, the quality of the hardpan or 
impervious layer if there is one, the faults and slips in the rock 
ledges, — all these fundamental earth statistics have the most 
important bearing on the direction, depth, and rapidity of the 
underground flow and therefore on the dangers of contamination 
from, for instance, a new sewage-disposal plant. 

The chemistry of the sewage field is helpful to bear in mind 
just here. Whether flowing directly or through a septic tank on 
to a sandy loam — preferable to sand — the earth first has a selec- 
tive straining action and within a few yards or rods retains the 
suspended material already existing. That which forms in the 
course of purification is strained out at various points. The 
chemical products of the decay are H2S, the various soluble 
nitrogenous compounds finally, as ammonia, and in the end 
nitrates and CO2 in great abundance. The organic acids formed 
have acted somewhat on the soil unless there was calcium car- 
bonate (lime) sufficient to '^ fix" them. The iron content of both 
soil and sewage is liable to combine with the carbonate and make 
an artificial hardpan which may stop or deflect the flow. The 
engineer has to bear in mind the fact that while modern science 
has almost annihilated space he has not yet succeeded in anni- 
hilating time in most processes. The coming years have to be 
reckoned with. 

If underground sources furnish the most satisfactory drinking 
water, it is the part of wisdom to protect the soil adjacent. In 
the case of the deep sources this is impracticable since hundreds 
of miles may intervene, but for the driven wells on which many 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 



103 



small communities depend, as well as for the wells for farms and 
country places, it is of the utmost importance that a clear under- 
standing should be disseminated as to the dangers of unclean 
soil. No simpler way is at hand than the theory of the sewage 
farm to show the course of the soihng and cleaning of land and 
water. This has been considered here a little in advance of 



The Inspector's and Prospector's Outfit, or the Field Kit 




Portable Case for Field Work in Water Analysis. 

Length, 16 inches; depth, 6| inches; height of each box, 7^ inches. 

Designed by Mrs. Lily Miller Kendall. 

its logical place because of the close connection with ground 
waters. 

Many once good wells have deteriorated since the introduction 
of purification plants. 

More and more frequently is coming to the laboratory the 
question, " Is this water carrying chlorine and nitrates danger- 
ous or Hable to become dangerous?" 



I04 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Tablets for field work have been used by many analysts. The 
English firm of Burroughs and Welcome put out many years ago 
a beautifully fitted, portable case at thirty dollars, similar to the 
field outfits the Germans provided for assayers in the early days 
of mine prospecting. 

Many of the most useful "soloids " can be put up to order in 
this country and added to the above outfit. 

Two boxes fitted up after the manner of instrument boxes are 
to be strapped together when carried by hand, but when separated 
may be slipped under the berth or wagon seat and kept right 
side up. 

The removable racks, with the permanent standards and free 
bottles for comparison, will be found to faciHtate observation. 
The bottles for reagents, with double ground glass stopper joints, 
may prove too frail for rough carriage; but fastened with the 
yoke, as shown in the left hand of the illustration, they should 
stand well. 

The padded cover furnishes a safe resting place for the 
pipettes, and the narrow space behind the racks allows for the 
carriage of the various additions which each chemist would 
choose for himself. 

Field Work. Water Surveys 

May be for different purposes : 

1. Search for source of known contamination. 

2. Search for possible future contamination. 

3. Search for possible more water. 

4. Search for possible cause of some already noted change. 

5. Survey for general condition to file as a basis for future 
work. 

In any case the man sent out should have laboratory and 
engineering experience and should be suited to this kind of 
detective duty. 

Testimony of the inhabitants of the watershed is often not 
reliable because there is no knowledge of the course of water under 
ground and of the different effects of the various kinds of soil 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 105 

and rock formation. There may be old watercourses, filled 
wells and cesspools, unsuspected drains, new crevices caused 
by earth movements or blasting. New houses or barns, even 
at some distance, may affect under-ground drainage very 
quickly. 

One of the signs to be watched for is green algae in quiet pools, 
an indication of food present It is doubtful if much can be pre- 
dicated on the presence of any given organism. The blue-green 
algae must have more nitrogen than the yellow-green and are 
abundant only in presence of food, the same is doubtless true of the 
oily, fishy uroglena only they thrive on very little. Abundance 
of Cyclops and daphnia doubtless may have some significance, 
but at present we can only say that spongy soil always gives up 
to water more substance than gravel gives. Cultivated fields 
lose a quarter or more of the artificial fertilizer used; pasture 
land, less, but a perceptible amount. Along the banks of a pool 
or stream may be grass and weeds which harbor insects, ani- 
mals, or birds. All these possibilities for food supply are to be 
taken in with a keen eye for indications. A man keen in wood- 
craft should accompany every considerable surveying party. 

Having spotted a doubtful brook or pool the field tests may be 
applied. If Nessler reagent gives a precipitate, pollution may 
be assumed; if a deep color, it is probable, but such surface 
water may not be held to freedom from it. Nitrites are a use- 
ful indication sometimes; color, always. Chlorine in excess 
and hardness will serve to trace sources. Chlorine should be 
normal and the degree of hardness depends upon the geological 
formation. 

If the suspected sample is from a well or spring, ammonia 
color, organic matter, and nitrites should be absent and chlorine 
and hardness only relative. 

At times the bacteria count is essential, but in all exposed 
waters the bacteria are so abundant that not until the various 
forms are better known and readily isolated can too much be 
predicated from mere numbers.. 

No field survey may be completed in one season. Times of 



106 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

flood and drought may cause vital changes. Surface water may 
even flow in an opposite direction. 

Indeed the field work is only one of the sources of informa- 
tion, even though it be repeated four times in the year to note 
the conditions due to seasonal changes. In the United States 
at least, there are well-defined cycles of high water and of drought 
which affect the water supphes. The position in the cycle of 
the particular year should be taken into account. 

In this work of inspection a peculiar quality comes into play 
— the genius of a detective on which are grafted the skill of 
the analyst and the judgment of the lawyer. It is not a simple 
matter, not work for a freshman, or even for a graduate, 
ivithout some apprenticeship. The trained worker can, how- 
ever, gain a valuable knowledge of many square miles with a 
hand kit, a keen nose and good eyesight, and some skill in 
drawing forth information. In every rural community there is 
at least one unappreciated observer, and if he can be found 
many threads may be gathered. In a survey, danger spots are 
to be scented, bad practices to be ferreted out, and the trails of 
infection uncovered. 

The final tests go to the laboratory for confirmation. The 
best results may be expected from various traveling exhibits 
when developed in connection with field work. Close observa- 
tion of the habits of the people helps greatly. 

Water a National Asset. Conservation of National 
Resources a Public Duty 

Preservation of quality of water for man's uses is a public 
duty. 

Clean water implies a clean soil. A clean soil can be found 
only where wastes are properly cared for and the principles 
and methods of disposal are both understood and faithfully 
carried out. 

Modern civilization demands a close interrelation of all the 
practical applications of science so that one man's benefit 



PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 107 

shall not be the detriment of many. It is because of this 
growing need for wide surveys that government control for the 
benefit of all the people is becoming more and more thought 
possible. 

The very life of the nation depends on its water supply. As 
has been stated, food, power, manufacturing, sanitation, as 
well as personal use, are all intimately bound up with water 
resources. A study of contamination and purification, of pre- 
vention and reclamation, is imperative. 

The time is here, already come, when the preservation of 
the quality and quantity of such water as remains to us is of 
paramount importance — not only its storage and metered 
use, but care of the collecting grounds, where the soil must be 
kept clean because there are no longer vast areas of unused col- 
lecting grounds. Fifty years ago both chemists and laymen 
had a partial justification for their opposition to cremation; 
to-day there is Httle excuse for the continued fouling of the 
soil. Sanitation means not only clean water but also clean air 
and clean soil. Clean water is especially dependent on clean 
soil, and with the great traveling propensity of moderns the 
rules for clean soil become more and more imperative. 

Education by sanitary legislation is being widely considered, 
but is not yet accomplished. Since a goodly part of the duty 
of governments is to educate the people in means for the pro- 
motion of their own well-being as well as to make laws, the 
new social consciousness expects the knowledge gained in the 
laboratory to be put at the service of the people. In fact legal 
restrictions are now almost always explained. 

The principle of risk referred to has been used in the 
dilution of doubtful waters to a degree where the risk was no 
greater than allowable. For example, Chicago drainage canal 
case. 

Another phase of the economic use of the nation's water sup- 
ply is found in the development of the water power of a stream 
previous to its use as a source for the domestic demands of a 
city. This will require the closest scrutiny of the watershed, 



io8 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



as well as of the immediate surroundings of the power plant. 
Here, too, the ofhce of the trained inspector is of value. 

The addition of mineral substance, acid or alkaline, causes a 
perceptible decrease in value of the water. In such cases water 
on its way to the citizens of a community can hardly be used 
for industrial purposes other than power. 

The study of water as a national asset must include that 
element of conservation of quality by dilution and sedimenta- 
tion known in earlier days as self-purification of rivers. 

In the case of shallow water with a sluggish movement, 
with coves of quiet waters, a river may be aided in recovery by 
the same causes as have been discussed above, but for the most 
part the improvement is due to sedimentation and dilution with 
cleaner water. The deterioration of a stream or lake may be 
due to increased population on the watershed or to manufac- 
turing changes. 

The following examples of Massachusetts streams will serve 
as illustrations : Charles, small stream with slight but steady in- 
crease — more affected by wet and dry years. 

Neponset, sluggish stream. 

Merrimack, diluted in dry months by a supply of good water 
from Lake Winnepesaukee. 

Progressive Pollution of Rivers illustrated by Difference in About 

Twenty Years. 





Date. 


Solids. 


Free 
ammonia. 


Alb. 
ammonia. 


Chlorine. 


Charles River at South Natick 

"at South Natick 

''atWaltham 

" at Waltham 

" at Waltham 

Neponset River at Readville 

" below Hyde Park... 

" at Readville 

" at Readville 

Concord River at Lowell 


1873 
1893 
1873 
1893 
I9OI 

1873 
1873 
1893 
I9OI 

1873 

1888-90 

I90I 


44 
51 

57 
70 

57 
58 
66 
77 

lOI 

61 
44 
55 


5 
5 
2 
2 

5 


4 


4 
3 
8 
6 


.050 
.002 
.060 
.083 
.061 
.047 
.110 

•151 
.146 
.082 
.019 
.158 


.110 

.200 
.164 
.244 

•303 
.270 
.300 
.320 
•579 
•257 
•237 
•735 


3-6 
4.6 
4.0 
7.0 
4-7 
5-0 

5-2 

II. 9 

12.0 

3-4 

30 

4.0 


u a (( 


u a (I 







PROTECTION OF WATER SUPPLIES 



109 



Variations through the Year Greater than through a Series of Years 

IN Mystic Lake 





June, 


Solids. 


NH3 
Free. 


NH3 

Alb. 


Chlorine. 


Horn Pond outlet 


1873 
1893 
1893 
1893 


IG4.6 
98.3 

135-4 
47-5 


■134 
.g6i 
.gg8 
•134 


.244 

•455 
.858 
.2g8 


2G.2 
21.0 

30.3 
6.7 


" " " average 


" " " maximum, Jan. . . 
" " " minimum, March 



The Progressive Pollution oe Rivers, illustrated by the Merrimack, a 

River of Large Volume increased from a Large Lake 

Parts per i,ggg,ogg 



Free ammonia. 
Alb. ammonia. 

Residue 

Loss 

Chlorine 

Nitrites 

Nitrates 

Color 



Above Lowell. 



1873 



•047 
.114 
41. G 

17-3 
1-4 



G26 
148 



7 

GGI 
083 

33 



.g6g 
.207 

40. G 

17.0 
1 .90 

.GGI 
.062 
■38 



1906 



.g8g 
.194 
41.2 

16.5 
2. 1 

.GG2 
•036 
■38 



Below Lowell, above Lawrence. 



1873 



•044 

. IIG 
41. G 
16.9 
2.GG 



1893 



•057 
.181 
.6 

.8 

.GG 
.GG2 
.081 
.42 



1901 



092 

7 
3 
4 
0G4 

G82 
41 



1906 



119 

239 

3 

3 

I 

003 

032 

41 



Nov., 1891, Bacteria, 1,930 per c.c. 



Oct., 1 891, Bacteria, 12,400. 
Nov., 1891, Bacteria, 2,500. 





Yearly Range. 


Below Lawrence. 


Above Lowell. 


Above Lawrence. 


1873 


1891 


1893 


1893 


Free ammonia 

Alb. ammonia 

Residue 

Loss 

Chlorine 


.031 
.127 

44-30 

17-90 

1.8 


59 
20 

3 


043 
309 
10 

4 
9 

GO 2 
095 
30 


26 
8 


004 to . 054 

102 to .2IG 

5 to38.G 
5 to 1 5 . G 
7 to 2.3 

GGG to .GO 2 

030 to . i8g 
10 to .50 


.012 to .124 
. i6g to . 236 
27.5 to 43 -5 

IG.G to 25.5 

i.o to 3.G 

.GGG to .G06 

.030 to .180 

.12 to 1.0 


Nitrites 


Nitrates 




Color. 













Oct., 1891, Bacteria, 13,600. 
Nov., 1 89 1, Bacteria, 2,700. 



no 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



Merrimack River. 



Increase Due to Pollution from above Lowell to 
Lawrence 

Parts per 1,000,000 



Date 



Increase i^ 



1590. 
1891. 
1892. 

1893. 
1894. 

1895. 
1896. 

1897. 
1898. 
1899. 
1900. 
1901 . 
1902. 
1903. 
1904, 

1905. 
1906. 





Residue on 
Evaporat'n 




Ammonia 






Nitrogen as 
























Albuminoid 


.H 


?^, 


S 








a 


•'-' 










a 


i 





13 


r" 


^ 




« 


1 


S 


rt 
g 


■l-> 

.000 




0. 1 


2.3 


0.9 


.007 


.027 


.017 


.010 


.26 


.003I 





o-,S 


6.2 


2.2^ 


.016 


.023 


.017 


.OOt) 


.28 


.020^ 


.000 


2. 


0.2I 


2.9 


0.7 


.021 


.023 


.021 


.002 


•35 


•030I 


.000 


I. 


0.6 


4.8 


1.2 


.019 


■037 


•037 


.000 


•39 


.013I 


.000 


0. 


0.9 


4-7 


30 


.031 


.032 


.021 


.Oil 


•35 


.002^ 


.001 


0. 


0.2 


1-5 


0.4 


.028 


.032 


.032 


.000 


•49 


.000 


.000 


I. 


I.I 


S-2 


3-3 


.022 


.063 


.046 


.017 


•63 


.005 


.001 


I. 


0.2 


5-1 


2.4 


•034 


•053 


.047 


.006 


.70 


.017 


.002 


2. 


0.6 


3-0 


0.8 


.019 


■051 


•033 


.018 


•50 


.000 


.000 


I. 


0-3 


4-7 


0.7 


.024 


•039 


.019 


.020 


• 44 


.010 


.002 


I. 


0.2 


3-9 


0.7 


.038 


•045 


.023 


.022 


•59 


.004^ 


.001 


I. 


0-3 


4.1 


I.I 


•037 


.027 


.026 


.001 


•55 


.Oil 


.000 


0. 


0.3 


2.7 


03 


.032 


.044 


.023 


.021 


•50 


.020 


.003 


3 


0.3 


5-2 


2.0 


.032 


.063 


.027 


.036 


.60 


.000 


.001 


I 


0.4 


5-6 


1.8 


•043 


■065 


•045 


.020 


•72 


.014 


.002 


2 


0.2 


31 


0.6 


.092 


.047 


.026 


.021 


I.O 


.004^ 


.001 


I 


0.4 


4-4 


0.9 


.047 


.042 


.024 


.018 


1.02 


.002 


.002 


I 


0.2 


5.6 


2.8 


•039 


•04s 


.029 


.016 


1.0 


.004I 


.001 


2 






1 Deci 


•ease. 

















CHAPTER Vm 
THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 

Effect of Storage. Office of Oxygen Dissolved and of 
Green Plants. Color, Odors, and Taste in Water 

With the unexpected development of a city it sometimes 
happens that the long look ahead was not taken, could not have 
been taken perhaps, and a watershed is needed for collection of 
a water supply, but is not in a suitable condition. . How shall it 
be improved? Most evident is the condition of the soil, satu- 
rated perhaps by waste of farms, enriched by years of cultivation, 
dotted with cemeteries, cattle runs, etc. 

It may be true that signs of pollution are not very plain, but 
no sensible official will to-day advocate the" laissezf aire ^' policy 
which has given so much trouble in the past. There are two 
alternatives, — to filter the water as used or to clean the water- 
shed. New York is doing both for her new supply. 

Just as the conditions of modern civiHzation demand the 
storage and transportation of grain, so they demand a storage 
and transportation of water, and this brings in a whole new set 
of elements. 

Pathogenic bacteria are not the only objectionable foreign 
elements in water. The air carries the seeds or spores of count- 
less kinds of green algae. These finding a resting place on the 
surface of water thrive in the sunlight, and if the food they need 
is in the water they soon cover the surface, are stirred into the 
water by winds, and take possession of the storage basin. Their 
decay, and sometimes their growth, gives rise to odors more or 
less unpleasant. Such is the cycle of life that animal forms 
• always accompany vegetable life and these too frequently pro- 
duce, living or dead, disagreeable odors. The water engineer 
finds these conditions among the most difficult he has to 



112 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

meet; not that means are not at hand but that the results of 
treatment have to be considered in their effect on the quahty 
of the water. For instance, the copper-sulphate remedy for 
certain forms of algae, the sulphates of aluminum, iron or man- 
ganese used for coagulation, the hypochlorite treatment for steri- 
lization, — all these chemicals need to be very nicely adjusted 
lest the remainders be objectionable. For these reasons, among 
others, a certain understanding of chemical relations is necessary 
to the equipment of the engineer to-day. 

Small-scale laboratory tests are more and more demanded, 
as they are in mining and ore dressing and various forms of 
manufacturing. The control of large plants needs the bacteri- 
ologist and the chemist to watch the unexpected changes con- 
stantly occurring, due to climate and to giving out of machinery 
and to the carelessness of workmen. The very idea of control 
implies standards to be met. 

What shall be the standards of clean and safe water to-day? 
Many of those set up in the past are inadequate with our 
present knowledge. Thus Wanklyn's is not applicable to highly 
colored waters. 

Water containing loo bacteria to the cubic centimeter is safe 
only when the bacteria are of a harmless kind. 

Odor and color are undesirable but not harmful properties. 

Nitrites may or may not be indicative of direct pollution, 
depending upon various circumstances. 

Only gross pollution may be surely predicated by one or 
two tests. 

The decision as to the safety of that excessively dilute, in- 
finitely varying substance is not confirmed even after the trial. 
If the man dies, the water was bad; but if he lives, he may have 
been strong enough to withstand its effects. 

The regeneration of a watershed is accomplished first by 
removal from the surface of such material as will contribute 
constantly increasing amounts of food for organisms; second, by 
requiring the disposal either by cremation or by such treatment 
as will quickly and completely decompose the organic material, 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 113 

of noxious material constantly arising from the occupation of 
dwellings, and factories; third, by a control of the cycle of life, 
both animal and vegetable, within the watercourses and the 
reservoirs so that a balance may be maintained. It is true that 
knowledge sufhcient for this control is not now at hand, but it 
should be sought most diligently. However completely the pre- 
cautions for waste disposal are carried out, if the watershed is 
not made completely barren, a condition not to be thought of 
over any considerable area, then arable land will yield (see p. 105) 
water rich in nitrates to the underground flow, and this flow 
will eventually find its way into the surface supplies. If the 
underground water is kept as the source of supply, then it 
must be stored in the dark for fire supply unless the community 
is to be subjected to the annoyance of unpleasant tastes and 
odors. 

The most notable instance of the regeneration of a watershed is 
that of the Metropolitan supply, described in Chapter IV, where, 
in order to build the Wachusett reservoir on a clean bottom, 
6.44 square miles (4200 acres) had to be renovated by the re- 
moval of pasture and farm lands, mills, villages, a cemetery in 
which 3902 bodies had been buried, and a smaller one in which 
were 65 bodies. Six million nine hundred and twenty-six 
thousand cubic yards of soil were removed and used for filling 
roads and for retaining-dikes. Trees, brush, and weeds were 
cut and burned, houses, gardens, roads and railroads and an 
old mill pond were removed and cleaned up. Cremation and 
safe disposal were carried out on a large scale at a cost of 
$2,536,612. Following the investigation made in Room 36 
where the trial samples were tested, four hundred and sixty-seven 
samples of soil were tested in the Clinton laboratory for percentage 
of organic matter for the guidance of the inspectors. Other areas 
amounting to six square miles were acquired for protection, 
several large filtration systems were installed, and scores of small 
plants were constructed for institutions, hotels, and farms, with- 
out which the soil would have been liable to deliver polluted 
water into the tributaries of the system. 



114 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

In January, 1897, purchases were made of fifty-four private 
estates within the limits of the reservoir, both village property 
and farms, also 950 acres from the Catholic churches in West 
Boylston and Boylston. The amount paid (Jan. i, 1897) was 
$863,164 for 1 2 10 acres, $203,000 paid for diversion of water. 

In January, 1898, ''homes, lands, and other valuable prop- 
erty have necessarily been taken from individuals and a large 
community has been broken up. It is but justice to say that 
few complaints have been uttered by those who have been 
affected by these operations, and in general all sections have 
seemed to unite in the endeavor to speed the progress of the 
work. 

'' The reservoir site was staked out into squares of 500 and 
1000 feet on a side to aid in determining the amount of soil 
removed by the contractors; 640 acres were cleared of brush 
and timber. 

'' The taking down of the dam of the Lancaster Mills laid bare 
the bottom of a mill pond which had been flooded for many 
years." 

The only reserve at present in danger is the original Lake 
Cochituate in the midst of a growing population. The increase 
in drainage is proved by the fact that the chlorine has doubled 
in the last forty years, but the care of the lake watershed has 
so increased that there is less trouble from plant growth which 
gives tastes and odors than was then frequent. 

The topographical formation is such that the drainage of 
several cities and towns must eventually find its way into the 
ground water. A study of the utilization of the now escaping 
nitrogen is the next step toward complete regeneration. 

Great improvement is possible on any tract of land, but cul- 
tivation means productive soil, and such ground is a nitrifying 
medium which must be supplied if fertility is to be maintained, 
and yet bare soil washes in heavy rains. An extensive study 
of the color and other soluble substances given up by various 
soils, shrubs, and trees led the Metropolitan Board of Massa- 
chusetts to strip the Wachusett reservoir site to a layer of sand 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 



115 



carrying i per cent of combustible organic matter and also to 
the planting of the slopes with pines, which give to the water 
much less soluble color than deciduous trees, and grow on less 
enriched soil. It has kept a constant watch over many square 
miles of territory now used as collecting ground and over many 



Air = Oxygen + 
Nitrogen 




Graphic Representation of Cycle of Nitrogen 
By Royce W. Gilbert 

more planned for as an extension of the system. In 1895 the 
Board prided itself on having compassed the scheme for supply 
one hundred years ahead, but before the great reservoir was 
completed in igoo the fifty years' limit was being drawn upon, 
and if urban growth and demands increase, long before the one 
hundred years end, Massachusetts will be confronted with water 



Il6 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

famine. Some new adjustments must take place to prevent 
American wastefulness of water resources. 

The western cities using rivers have little control over distant 
watersheds, hence their greater use of filters; but many small 
towns with growing prospects are now looking ahead. For them 
advice is timely, and the sanitary engineer should have some 
facts and estimates as reasons for money outlay. Certain Hues 
have been so far proved as a working plan, and, once begun, 
other details will suggest themselves. 

From the line of thought hitherto followed it is evident that 
any discussion of the storage of water (and it is acknowledged 
that the supply for any considerable community of people must 
be stored unless it is taken from a large stream like the Merrimac, 
the Hudson, or the Mississippi) must include the effects of the 
presence of life during the periods of stagnation and circula- 
tion; and while this properly belongs to the biological side, there 
are chemical changes to be considered. 

In case of surface waters we may call this change purification 
by life. Here is the Cycle of all matter; chlorophyll-containing 
cells and sunlight combine mineral matter ; this produces organic 
substances and sugar, starch, gluten, etc., upon which other 
Hving matter not green or chlorophyll-containing lives. 

Regeneration of collected water by storage includes natural 
sterilization and bleaching in the sunlight and a crowding out 
of undesirable organisms for the most part more delicate than 
others. Pathogenic organisms which thrive in the warm dark 
interior of the body, in rich fluids, die out rather quickly in the 
light and in cold water. 

It is advisable, on all accounts, to keep the stored water as 
cold as possible. Therefore a depth of over thirty feet is advis- 
able, since water at that depth is probably below 65°, a tem- 
perature favorable only to diatoms, survivals of a colder age. 

The storage of surface waters involves chemical processes of 
oxidation and growth by means of nitrates and CO2, and the pro- 
duction of oxygen from green plants, even from the floating 
plankton. 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 1 17 

Recovery of diseased water is, in nature, accomplished by 
the above-mentioned cycle; decomposition by one set of organ- 
isms using up oxygen in the so-called mineralizing or oxidizing 
processes; fixation of oxygen, 

CHON -^ CO2 • HNO3 • H2O, 

and the utilization of these products in making new vegetable 
foods for animals, by aid of the sun and chlorophyll. Green 
plants, whether the silo corn of the sewage field or the floating 
plankton of the lake, are the important agents in natural water 
purification, both in " fixing " the carbon and nitrogen, and in 
yielding oxygen gas to enable the cycle to go on revolving. 

A weak point in the care of waterworks is still a lack of 
knowledge of all the values of these helpful agents. Because 
among them are some of the worst plagues, all are apt to be 
condemned. 

While there are a few large rivers sufficient for the needs of 
the cities likely to grow up on their banks, the greater number 
of towns and some of the largest cities must depend upon col- 
lected and stored water. The great lakes, if not used for col- 
lection of wastes, would furnish ideal supplies. They are fast 
becoming fouled by increase of population and manufacturing. 
The majority of towns depend upon collecting reservoirs, natural 
or artificial, and the management of these brings forward a 
whole set of new conditions intimately connected with the cycle 
of Hfe and the decay of organic matter. 

If the collecting ground upon which the rain falls is clean, if 
the flowing water does not traverse cultivated or polluted soil, 
and is finally held in a clean basin, the exposure to air and sun- 
light is most beneficial and the resulting water is of excellent 
quahty. But under the circumstances of modern living such 
water is very rare. Any watershed may be infected by travelers 
or tramps, camping parties, or isolated dwellings. Occupation 
has become so general that fertilized fields washed by the rains 
yield a large part of their waste waters to the collecting basins, as 
well as the underdrain seepage to the general underground flow. 



Il8 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

'^In August, 1906, more than 100,000 fish died in Weequahic 
Lake, Newark, in less than forty-eight hours. This lake is in 
one of the county parks. It has an area of 80 acres, an average 
depth of 5 or 6 feet, and is fed largely by ground water. The 
fish fatality occurred during a period of hot, sultry weather and 
immediately after the sudden decay of a heavy growth of Ana- 
baena and Clathrocystis in the water. Analyses made two days 
after the fish commenced to die and about as the fatality was 
ceasing showed the water to be devoid of oxygen, except in a 
thin layer near the surface. It was the sudden exhaustion of 
oxygen brought about by the decay of the algae that killed 
the fish. 

" Observations made for a number of days after the fish episode 
showed first a gradual return of the oxygen and then a noticeable 
supersaturation, or more properly a surcharging of the water 
with oxygen. Coincident with this the water lost all of its 
dissolved free carbonic acid, and even some of the carbonic 
acid from its bicarbonates. At times the water contained two 
and even three times as much oxygen as that required to satu- 
rate it from the air, while the deficiency in half-bound carbonic 
acid sometimes amounted to 10 or 15 parts per milHon. These 
phenomena were apparently due to the growth of several algae, 
such as Melosira, Cyclotella, Scenedesmus, Raphidium, Crypto- 
monas, Anabaena, etc. The phenomena mentioned were noticed 
only on quiet days when the water as shown by temperature 
observations was thermally stratified. They were noticed only 
near the surface, — that is, within the limits of the greatest 
activity of the sun's rays. Near the bottom of the lake at such 
times the water showed a deficiency of dissolved oxygen and 
considerable amounts of free carbonic acid. On windy days 
there was a general mixing up of the waters throughout the 
vertical, shown by the chemical analyses as well as by the tem- 
perature observations. 

" Besides illustrating certain well-known influences affecting 
algae growths (such as the effect of the sunlight at various 
depths, the influence of quiet weather, etc.), the data apparently 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 119 

indicated that certain algae have the power of seizing carbonic 
acid from the bicarbonates, leaving normal carbonates dissolved 
in the water. They also show that at times of intense growth 
algae may give off more oxygen than the water can hold in 
solution." — Herbert B. Baldwin, Newark, N. J., and George 
C. Whipple, New York City. 

The non-chlorophyll-bearing organisms produce other less 
complex organic substances and finally reduce them to mineral 
matter, ammonia, CO2, H2O, to begin again the cycle. Rain 
water washes mineral CO2, NH3 from air, seeds of green algae 
diatoms, etc.; green water plants feed upon this in sunKght; 
infusoria, protozoa, crustaceans hve on the algae; small fish 
live on these and when dead decompose and the cycle begins 
again. 

The balance of animal and vegetable life must be kept in order 
to have the stored water delivered sweet and pure. To all this 
purifying life oxygen is as essential in water as in air, and if it is 
cut off when there are organic matters in transit, then serious 
disturbances follow. 

But with the advent of spring the surface becomes warmer 
than the bottom, and this warmer water remains uppermost, 
leaving the bottom layers undisturbed at depths below 25 
or 30 feet according to the size and shape of the lake. The 
mixing of the upper layers is accompKshed by the wind. What- 
ever sinks into this lower, still cold layer decomposes, but does 
not oxidize unless the bottom is so clean and the contaminating 
material so little that oxygen is still abundant. 

The unique character of water as to density plays an important 
part in the storage of water. The greatest density is at 39° F., not 
32°, so that ice floats and the colder water is next it, while the 
bottom of the pond is warmer than the surface. 

Water as stored in lakes and large artificial reservoirs under- 
goes many changes not common or possible in streams. Such 
basins are in the first place quite commonly fed by underground 
waters as well as by the immediate watershed. This water is 
often cold, clear and colorless in a region where the surface water 



I20 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

is brown, there being enough lime or clay to decolorize it during 
the slow downward movement. 

The cycle of life in these lakes is like that in a well-kept aqua- 
rium, — a balance between vegetable and animal forms, — but 
the bane of lakes and especially of small ponds is that food for 
green plants, nitrates. 

Copper sulphate has been successfully used in checking the 
growth of anabaena flos-aquae in the Canal Zone, where the 
temperature is favorable to its growth. Odors of stagnation 
were removed by aeration by compressed air. [Isthmian Canal 
Com., appendix C] 

In the Biochemical Journal for June (Vol. V., No. 4) Prof. 
Benjamin Moore and Dr. Stenhouse Williams detail experiments 
on the effect of an increased percentage of oxygen on the vitality 
and growth of bacteria. Of 26 organisms tested, two may be 
termed oxyphobic. These are the tubercle bacillus, which is 
not only arrested in growth but is actually killed by a high per- 
centage of oxygen, and the plague bacillus, which, though not 
killed, uniformly refused to grow in percentages of oxygen from 
60 to 91. The staphylococcic group was adversely affected, 
but the remainder, including typhoid, dysentery, glanders, 
diphtheria, anthrax, and cholera organisms, were unaffected. 
[Nature, Aug. 11, 1910, p. 181.] 

Ammonia washed from the air by rain and snow is the first 
source of nitrates in clean waters after they have traversed the 
film of " living earth " seeded with nitrifying organisms. 

The second source of nitrates is from the decaying vegetation 
on hills and dales, the humus in the soil, the slow return to the 
mineral kingdom of the combined nitrogen. 

From the first source, rain or melted snow, from .2 to .4 part 
per million seems to be an average amount, less over uninhabited 
areas or from constantly rain-washed air, more over cities in 
times of stagnant circulation. The earlier deduction that 
nitrates came ready formed from the air was due to ignorance 
of the part played by the nitrifying organisms. No reason was 
known why the water in the rain gauge should change with a 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 121 

month's keeping. In clean soil the balance of growth and decay 
is so nearly equal that only a small excess of nitrate escapes into 
the flowing water. Of the hundreds of such samples tested, 
the content of nitrates found has been from none in clean 
surface water in the month of October when the plankton has 
exhausted the small store, to .4 or .6 part per million in the 
early spring. 

It was Sir Edward Frankland who pointed out the significance 
of nitrates as proof of animal contamination of the soil. Al- 
though his deduction was ignored or opposed by Wanklyn and 
others, it has stood the test of time, even though his theory 
that no such water could be made safe to drink is not held 
to-day. 

The composition of animal tissues and fluids is markedly 
variant from vegetable in the proportion of combined nitrogen 
yielding ammonia on decomposition. While most vegetable sub- 
stance is economical in its use of the precious element, animal 
albumen contains 16 per cent and so on down. Animal wastes, 
. guano, barnyard manure, sewage carry considerable percentage 
of nitrogen readily converted into nitrate and used as food for 
green plants to begin again the cycle. 

Here, then, in the luxuriant growth of plants is an indication 
of the presence of food. In excess of what can be used the ni- 
trate drains off in the sub-soil water or is washed into streams by 
heavy rains. An excess of nitrate therefore over .4 to .6 indi- 
cates a soil drainage; over i. to 2., an escape of unused nitrate, 
perhaps applied as fertihzers; while gross pollution of water often 
results in 10 to 20 parts nitrates. 

The same excess of nitrates without indicating human occupa- 
tion might be found in the waters of ChiH and the islands where 
birds now congregate or in the past have congregated. The 
wastes of human activity are, however, so far in excess of other 
sources of nitrates that the presence of the latter is for the most 
part a sure trail to the origin of contamination. 

Occasional exceptions may occur, — unexploded powder in 
drilling, deposits from manufactories, but in by far the larger 



122 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

number of cases the source of nitrates present in water may be 
traced to wastes of human occupation, — the cesspool, the barn- 
yard, the pigpen, the hencoop, the fertiHzed garden or plowed 
field. 

Since the sources of contamination carry varying degrees of 
danger from pathogenic germs, it is of consequence to distinguish 
if possible between them. The ratio between chlorine and nitrate 
gives a clew. Sewage carries about equal percentages of chlorine 
and nitrate, the farmyard more nitrates than chlorine, the sink 
drain more chlorine than nitrates. This theory led to the dis- 
covery of the source of the nitrates in many instances. 

No infallibility is claimed for this rule, but it is a working 
hypothesis. There is at present no method of determining 
nitrates as delicate as that for the determination of ammonia, 
but for the engineer this does not signify, since the nitrogen 
compounds are so unstable that the forms undergoing oxida- 
tion — nitrites and nitrates — are indicative only in relative 
proportion. 

It is clear that the storage in a lake or reservoir of a water 
carrying high nitrates will, sunlight and temperature favoring, 
produce a fine crop of green plants. The varieties of these 
depend on unknown variables, — the seeding, the conditions 
favoring one form over another, besides temperature, rainfall, 
duration of storage, and, no doubt, the mineral constituents of 
the water. 

It is well known that green plants give off oxygen during the 
process of growth in sunlight and thus regenerate a stored water. 
It is rare that a green alga becomes offensive, even in decay, 
but the blue-greens, richer in nitrogen, are not infrequently 
offensive in growth as well as in decay. These must indicate a 
richer food material, and while they may be killed out in a few 
hours by a judicious application of copper sulphate, one tenth to 
one part in a million parts water, the nitrogen is not removed, 
only started again on its cycle. It is only when the green plants 
take the form of long tough grass-like fibers that may be raked 
out in order that a remedy may be applied to the water itself. 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 123 

Removal of the source of the food is the desirable thing. Since 
all arable soil is rich in food, there arises the question of making 
the collecting ground barren. It will be of great advantage if 
the laws of rotation of crops can be worked out for bodies of 
water, for there is a natural rotation of crops in the plankton of a 
reservoir, dependent on varying conditions, and whatever inter- 
feres with that rotation causes trouble. The use of copper 
sulphate to clear a reservoir, either natural or artificial, disturbs 
the balance of living forms, and not enough data are at hand to 
say what is liable to happen in any given case. One of the 
most valuable investigations is waiting for an investigator. 

At present the superintendent of a waterworks who uses copper 
sulphate takes a risk of causing worse evils in the end. In some 
cases it is quite in line with the best pohcy to take the risk. 
But meanwhile a constant search must be made for the source, 
that is, the food. 

The most conclusive indicator of the character of stored lake 
or reservoir water is the quantity of dissolved oxygen it contains 
in summer when the water below about 25 feet is stagnant. 
The following illustrations are instructive: Basin 4 (Ashland 
Reservoir) of the Boston Waterworks collected its supply from 
a clean watershed, and the organic matter it carries is of a peaty 
character, nearly aseptic — if the expression may be allowed. 
All soil and vegetable matter were carefully removed before the 
reservoir was filled about forty years ago. 

Jamaica Pond is a natural basin dating probably from the 
age of glacier retreat from New England, never cleaned, in the 
midst of cultivated estates, used for many years for ice cutting, 
skating, boating, and well stocked with fish. Moreover it 
derives its supply chiefly from springs, but is subject to surface 
wash from rather steep banks. 

For at least forty years this sheet of water has supported 
abundant crops of water plants, sometimes of one variety to the 
exclusion of others, as the oscillaria referred to, page 128, or 
asterionella, or the common form of rooted grass-like plants. 



124 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



Oxygen Dissolved 



Jamaica Pond, July 14, 1891. 


Basin 4, Aug. 20, 1891. 




Temp. C. 


Oxygen 
per cent of 
saturation. 




Temp. C. 


Oxygen 
per cent of 
saturation. 


Surface 


24. 


100. 

100. 

49-0 

295 
4.2 
0. 

°- 


Surface 

10 feet below . . . 
20 feet below . . . 
30 feet below . . . 
35 feet below . . . 
36^, bottom. . . . 


23.6 
21.6 
16.6 
21. 1 
12.6 
12.6 


84.5 
84-3 
28.0 
27.4 
16.3 


10 feet below 

20 feet below 

30 feet below 

35 feet below 

40 feet below 

47 feet below 


23 
12 

5 
5 
5 
5 


8 



8 

6 

4 
9 











The lower layers of the pond are offensive in odor, containing 
hydrogen sulphide and other offensive compounds. 

There was sufficient oxygen in Basin 4 to prevent bad odors. 

Several other uncleaned reservoirs examined showed an absence 
of oxygen below ten or fifteen feet, while Lake Winnepesaukee 
held nearly the full amount at a depth of 120 feet. 

Aeration may be used to advantage in small reservoirs, as at 
Panama. But when an artificial basin is being built it is wise to 
have a clean bottom and sides and to protect the upper slopes. 
Beautifully kept, highly fertilized banks are not sanitary, if they 
are aesthetic. 

The odor of ground waters is closely connected with the ab- 
sence of oxygen in such water as is recently filtered either natu- 
rally or by a filter well sunk near a pond or stream. Such water 
frequently gives a fermentative odor, sometimes as strong as that 
of an empty wine cask. Such an odor is also noticed in the 
efHuent from a filter with insufficient aeration. A clayey odor 
is not uncommon, but the majority of clear ground waters are 
odorless. Such is not the case with surface waters; on the con- 
trary they usually give a distinct odor when they are heated, if 
not in the cold, and this odor may prove one of the most dis- 
tinctive characteristics of the water year after year or month after 
month, or it may vary with the season. In the early autumn, 
when the leaves begin to fall, many waters give a pecuhar 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 12 5 

sweetish odor quite different from the astringent peaty odor of 
the spring. 

Rivers receiving pollution almost always betray the fact in 
winter when the ice sheet prevents aeration. The odor is then 
"musty," the odor of the straw from the horse stable, not 
"offensive" like sewage, but distinct and characteristic wherever 
found. " Mouldy," means having the smell of clean leaf mould 
from the forest, with no suggestion of sewage. 

The various plants and animals inhabiting the water, especially 
stored water, have each their characteristic odor, as do the earth- 
borne plants and animals. Some are very strong, the onions of 
the plankton or rootless plants; some are the skunks of the water,, 
while others float unnoticed. 

Anabaena and the varieties of the " blue-green" group, rich in 
nitrogen, give both in growing and in decay very disagreeable, 
characteristic odors. Asterionella, the diatom of the glacial age, 
which abounded in the infusorial silica beds, gives a rather 
fragrant geranium odor when growing, but a vile fishy odor when 
in the process of decay. Since it is a cold-water organism, this 
bad odor arises with the rising temperature of the water. 
Anabaena thrives best in water of 70° or more. Synura gives a 
cucumber or fishy odor; Uroglena smells oily; Peridinium and 
Trachelomonas both are fishy in degrees. Each distinctive odor 
once learned by any one with a sensitive nose always conveys a 
definite meaning. 

There is still a field for investigation for the chemical botanist 
in the curious alternation of the organisms and their sensitive- 
ness to slight variations in condition. 

The definition of ground water includes "colorless" as a de- 
scriptive term. "Colored " may also be used as a descriptive term 
for the surface waters derived from the region of the oldest rocks, 
the Archaean or Lauren tian of Canada. All soils without Hme 
in quantity yield water with color from slight to a rich tea color. 
The color is due in fact to the same cause as that of well-fer- 
mented tea leaves, and to the still further stage of caramelization 
approaching the blackness of burned sugar. The black water of 



126 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



Ireland, Alaska, and elsewhere is an extract of peat approaching 
complete carbonization. There is not the sHghtest proof that 
this color has any sanitary significance, and yet it brings with it 
to the chemical analysis an amount of nitrogen which in a color- 
less water would be objectionable. It also requires an aniount 
of oxygen consumed which would make one hesitate if the sample 
were a colorless water. The three determinations must then be 
considered together in a group and no diagnosis made on either one 
alone. 

Number XII while illustrating the general correspondence 
also shows the variations due to varying conditions. 

The color given to a water by the seepage from swamps, and 



4 

3 
XII. 

2 

1 



Jan. Teb. Mar. Apr. May June July An 


p. Se 


pt. Oct. Nov, Dec. 
















/ 


^^ 


















-V 




\ 


/ 




\ 


\ 


^. 


13 






"""^^ 


^''' 

"^' 


/J 




•>i^J>. 


V 


\ 






=5=^ 


% 
1 








^"•^ 








/ 


\ 




/" 












r<n1r.r 
















Oxyge 
Los 


nCons 
sonig 


umed 

Dition 



woodland brooks is much higher in spring (in this case reach- 
ing its maximum in May) the oxygen required being less with the 
higher carbonization of the organic matter. 

As might be expected the loss on ignition is higher the greater 
the activity in plant growth which yields less color but has 
more soluble organic matter. 

Albuminoid ammonia follows in a general way the color in 
clear soft surface waters, so that the color must always have 
weight in the interpretation. 

Brown waters rarely give much free ammonia. A series of 
'experiments, made in 1887 resulted in the following estimates: 
A pound of dried leaves, elm, maple, oak, could give to 2000 
[gallons of water an extract which would yield albuminoid am- 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 



127 



monia .150 per million on Wanklyn's limit of allowable contami- 
nation. About 80 per cent of the albuminoid ammonia is 
removed when the color is taken out by aluminum hydrate. 
Nitrogenous substances of animal origin do not usually give color, 
with the exception of blood in strong solution, and aluminum 



Relation of Color to Oxygen Consumed in 
Massachusetts Surface Waters 



III. 

1.0 
.9 
.8 


























y 






















/ 
























y 


/ 






















/ 


/ 








1 
















/ 












r 

.3 
.1 












^ 


^ 




















/^ 


^ 




















/ 






















/ 


/ 
























J 



























.5 



.8 .9 1.0 1.10 1.20 1.30 



Color 



Average of color for 12 months given by 12 samples. Average of oxygen 
consumed given by the same 12 samples for the same 12 months. 

hydrate does not remove this soluble nitrogenous matter to any 
extent. 

Organisms, well studied, are valuable indicators. For instance, 
abundant growth means abundant food, and food of green 
plants is the product of decay, hence there has been food for 
the organisms by which decay is accomplished. If this supply 
may be cut off, the cycle is broken, but it is worse than useless 
to stop the organism without stopping its food. 



128 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



This is the cause of some hesitation as to municipal steriliza- 
tion. Prevention at the source is more logical. 

Storage of suspected waters, exposure to sunlight and oxygen, 
and opportunity for chlorophyll purification, give surer results. 



Biological Examination of Water 



No. 8 
Blue-green algae. 

Other algae 

Fungi 

Animals 

No. i8. 
Blue-green algae 

Other algae 

Fungi 

Animals 

No. 19. 
Blue-green algae 

Other algae 

Fungi 

Animals 

No. 21. 
Blue-green algae 

Other algae 

Fungi 

Animals 

No. 27. 
Blue-green 
Other algae. 

Fungi 

Animals. . . 

No. 29 
Blue-green 
Other algae. 

Fungi 

Animals. . . 

No. 30 
Blue-green 
Other algae. 

Fungi 

Animals. . . 



c5 .a 

S 3 

.s ^ 

Us en 

l-i (U 

< ^ 



2 ^ 



o 



W .a 



Apr. 



o 

1-7 

o 

1.2 



o 
10. 

o 
pr. 

o 
pr. 

o 

pr. 
o 
pr. 

o 
pr. 

o 
pr. 

o 

22. 2 
o 
6. 



May. 



7-5 
22 . 2 

o 
pr. 

o 
. 2 
.0 

pr 



o 
pr. 

o 

13-8 
o 
pr. 

o 
pr. 

o 
pr. 

o 

25.0 
o 
pr 



June. 



o 

191. 6 

O 

pr 



July, 



pr. 

77-4 
o 

o 

5-8 

•3 

1.4 

o 

1 . 2 
o 
•3 



•5 
. I 
. I 

5- 

•5 
pr. 
pr. 

51 

4.2 
o 
I . 



Aug. 



pr. 

70.6 
o 
6.2 

pr. 
31 

1 .2 
.2 

o 

II. o 

o 

•7 



o 
pr. 

40.6 
7.0 
o 
pr. 

6.9 
4.4 
o 
pr. 

5- 
2.6 
o 
pr. 



Sept. 



20.0 
o 
I . I 

pr- 

2.8 

o 

3-4 

o 

4-7 
o 
.1 



pr. 



pr. 
8. 
pr. 
.6 

12.0 
2.6 
o 

pr. 

4- 

•7 



Oct. 



4- 
5-7 
o 
. 2 

pr. 



Nov. 



o 
37-2 
o 
1.6 

16. 

■7 
o 

2-3 



o 

1. 1 
pr. 

.2 

o 

pr. 
o 
o 

pr. 

10. 7 
o 
.2 

o 

6.6 
. I 
. I 



Dec. 



II-5 
O 

•4 



o 
o 

o 
o 
o 
o 

o 

pr. 
o 
o 

o 
o 
o 
o 

o 

7-9 
•4 
pr 

o 

3-0 
•4 
o 



Jan. 



pr. 

4.0 

o 

6.0 



•4 
pr. 
pr. 

o 

1-4 

o 

o 

o 

16. 2 
. I 

.2 

O 

10. I 

O 

pr. 



Water farming may be developed in the future. Certain it 
is that "cropping" of reservoirs whether natural or artificial 
will frequently be needed as intensive farming and closer settle- 
ment of now wild lands takes place, for a considerable pro- 
portion of the collected water has brought with it food for 



THE REGEXEIL\TION OF THE WATERSHED 1 29 

plants, and with food in water, and sunlight, growth is inevi- 
table. SKght changes in conditions vary the crop. The weak- 
est link in all water-supply theories to-day is the relation of 
the excess of green plant hfe both fixed and as floating plank- 
ton. The relation of these plants to the animal Hfe and the 
significance of the various animal forms are unknown factors 
awaiting careful study. The smallest change in conditions effects 
great change in the fauna and flora of still waters. 

Troublesome growths occur when the water is supplied with 
organic matter from sewage or cultivation. ''The effect appears 
to be nearly the same when sewage is purified by filtration 
through the ground before entering the water supply as when 
it is discharged directly into it." ^ That is, it is nitrogen which 
serves as food, regardless of its source. 

Some of the most baffling causes of bad odors and tastes 
seem to be due to ammoniacal and carbohydrate compounds or 
even to absorbed carbon dioxide, since they often occur in the 
absence of any considerable amount of nitrate. 

Some otherwise good lakes develop plants for three or four 
weeks in certain seasons — asterionella in spring, anabaena in 
August and September, uroglena or synura in October and 
November, trachelomona and peridinium at various times. 

Abundant growths of blue-greens, of evil reputation, such as 
anabaena, oscillaria, clathrocystis, and aphanozomenon, are in- 
dicative of waters rich in food and high in temperature. They 
become a very pest, but they do convert the nitrogen into plant 
tissue. In a lake there is no way of straining them out as there 
is of raking out the grass-like growths. 

Sterilization leaves the food untouched, therefore, like filtration, 
sterilization demands immediate use of the treated water. 

The difficulty in ''cropping" a reservoir, which is a natural 
lake or artificial reservoir, is that the seeding cannot be con- 
trolled and plants of unpleasant odor may abound among the 
plankton. They are apt to be those doing the greatest ser- 

^ Twenty-second Report of the Mass. State Board of Health, 1890, p. 365, 
"Quality of surface water." 



130 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

vice, — using the most nitrogen. It is, however, not too much 
to expect that a means will be discovered of seeding with harm- 
less plants which may be raked out. 

Jamaica Pond in Boston affords an instructive history. Os- 
cillaria, according to tradition, had appeared about 1865 or 1868 
and 1870. No especial growth had been observed for sixteen 
years, when some peculiar unknown conditions in 1887 g^ve 
rise to an enormous development which continued for 18 years, 
when copper sulphate was applied in September, 1903. At 
this time, spore forms, or what seemed to answer to spores, 
appeared only in late September, so that seeds were left after 
the sulphate treatment. In three years the growth was again 
obnoxious, although other forms had appeared. An application 
of copper sulphate in August, 1905, when the layering of the 
pond prevented the mixing and at a time of low water, de- 
stroyed not only the oscillaria and anabaena but also the fish. 
The twelve cartloads of these which were removed took out a 
considerable portion of the nitrogen, and, taken in connection 
with the introduction of waterfowl (often 200 ducks in the fall, 
and 20 to 30 swans in a body of water one-half mile in diameter), 
changed the character of the plant growth. Usual water grass 
and a different plankton got the upper hand, and compara- 
tively little oscillaria has since been found, although in July, 
1 9 10, a decided increase appeared. The waterfowl have, no 
doubt, made a considerable difference. They are fed each 
Sunday large amounts of bread, much of which disintegrates 
without being eaten. 

"Experience shows that where the population exceeds 300 per 
square mile of watershed, the stored water, whether in natural 
pond or reservoir, is particularly liable to produce an abnormal 
growth of organisms." 

Oxygen Dissolved 

That water held air in solution was known in the early days 
of science. The circulation in fishes' gills, however, was not 
understood until much later. 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 131 

The application of the vacuum pump in glass vessels made 
visible the air bubbles leaving the water, and analysis showed 
the composition. Deep waters were seen to be charged with gas 
such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulphide, marsh gas, etc. But 
the office of air dissolved in water came to be understood only 
after the processes of decay and purification were related to the 
real agents, living organisms. 

In the hght of this theory the quantity of gaseous uncom- 
bined oxygen in the water took on a new importance and the 
means for its determination became of great interest. It is not 
necessary to review all the processes that have been proposed. 
Exhaustion of the air in a given quantity, usually a liter, of the 
water to be tested, and analysis in a gas apparatus is of course 
the most satisfactory process from a scientific point of view. The 
initial expense of the apparatus, the degree of technical skill 
demanded, and the time required to make the test, all tend to 
lessen the number of tests practicable in municipal work. 

Short indirect methods have been sought, many of which are 
still found in the textbooks. Consensus of opinion points to 
some form of Winkler's indirect method by Hberation and deter- 
mination of iodine as the most practicable for routine work and 
as, under careful manipulation, sufficiently accurate for general 
purposes. It has also the advantage of adaptation to field 
methods, since the color given by the iodine may be watched 
for and an approximate determination made without further 
analysis. For this purpose are required a few bottles of standard 
solutions. 

Because of the part oxygen plays in purifying processes it has 
taken a chief place in water analysis. 

Pure water absorbs air according to temperature and pressure, 
but in the consideration of ordinary water supplies pressure plays 
the lesser part. [See table below.] 

If the stream receives the organic matter from sewage, from 
a paper mill, from a creamery, or a cow pasture, or cornfield, 
there is danger that the oxygen will all be absorbed and putre- 
factive changes, yielding offensive odors, will go on. Artificial 



132 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



aeration may then help, but not very appreciably unless the 
temperature is lowered. 

Revivifying of the stream takes place when the water 
flowing slowly over shallows becomes green from the various 
algae chlorophyll-bearing plants that in their growth give up 
oxygen. 

In investigation it is often of consequence to know how much 
impurity a given stream will take care of without offense. 



Quantities of Dissolved Oxygen in Parts per Million by Weight 
IN Water saturated with Air at the Temperature Given 



Temp. 

c. 


Oxygen. 


Temp. 

c. 


Oxygen. 


Temp. 

c. 


Oxygen. 


Temp. 

c. 


Oxygen. 


o 


14.70 


8 


11.86 


16 


9-94 


24 


8.51 


I 


14.28 


9 


11.58 


17 


9-75 


25 


8.35 


2 


13.88 


10 


II. 31 


18 


9 56 


26 


8.19 


3 


13-50 






19 


9-37 






4 


13-14 


II 


11.05 


20 


9.19 


27 


8.03 


5 


12.80 


12 


10.80 


21 


9.01 


28 


7.88 






13 


1057 






29 


7-74 


6 


12.47 


14 


IO-35 


22 


8.84 


30 


7.60 


7 


12.16 


15 


10. 14 


23 


8.67 











By whatever steps the work is done, oxidation is the final 
stage of decomposition of organic matter and is called purifica- 
tion. It is for the most part accomplished by low forms of life, 
by sunlight and by chlorophyll-bearing plants, and in part by 
direct oxidation. But before a stable balance is reached there 
are many set-backs. Once formed, nitrates, for instance, are 
reduced in the presence of living organisms eager for food. A 
limited purification in the sense of elimination of nitrogen may 
take place in this way. 

The rapidity of certain changes is well illustrated by the 
experiment first tried in 1890, of cultivating bacteria in a suit- 
able food medium in the presence of nitrates. This form of 
nitrogen is no longer food for the decomposing agents, but when 
the oxygen dissolved in the seeded water is used up, the plants in 
their struggle for existence rob the nitrates, reducing them first to 
nitrites, and if food is still abundant and the proportions not too 



(( 



THE REGENER.\TION OF THE WATERSHED 133 

rich so that they die in their own atmosphere, the plants take the 
remaining oxygen, sending the nitrogen back into the air to begin 
again its cycle of change. 

Boston tap v/ater 8 liters 

Skim milk 8 c.c. 

KNO3 2.5 gms. (40.3 parts per 1^000,000). 

Nitrites 

Jan. 9, 9.45 A.ii 01 part per 1,000,000 

9, 3 P-^ 05 " 

10, 8.45 A.M 4-5 parts 

10, II A.M 5.0 " 

11, 9 A.M lO.O " 

II, 12.30 noon 12,0 " 



Where there is food there will be growth under favoring con- 
ditions of temperature; but what laws govern the kind of life 
we do not yet know. Many curious alternations are brought 
about by the use of copper sulphate in killing out the blue-green 
algae and other delicate plant hfe. In most cases another form 
appears which was apparently inhibited in its growth by the 
first plant: copper sulphate does not remove the nitrogen, it 
merely makes possible a transfer. When the growth is of the 
long thread-like forms or the common chara, etc., it may be 
raked out and carried off. 

A close study of these plant growths and their alternations 
under varying conditions is one of the most needed investigations 
of the time as regards stored water and the regeneration of many 
small watersheds. 

The rectifying, recovering, or regeneration of a watershed may 
be carried out in a few years by nature's processes intelligently 
directed. Disposal of particular wastes will be treated of in a 
later chapter; but a general pohcing of watersheds is a necessity 
if they are to be kept as free as is possible, and this inspection 
must include the education of the people to the necessity of a 
clean soil. This care must extend back into the mountains or 
to the springs which add their quota to the volume of water. 



134 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

All the tributaries, the quiet pools and large lakes, must be 
considered. Even if the greater part of the waste from houses 
and factories is burned, as it should be, there remains the under- 
drainage from arable land which the Rothhampstead experiment 
proved to carry from one-quarter to one-half the total applied 
nitrogen. 

Food is supplied in two chief forms from two quite different 
sources. Ammonia and soluble carbonaceous substances are 
brought into lakes and reservoirs by surface flow, rain and 
melting snow. 

The prospector must be armed with some knowledge as well 
as with a microscope if he would gain the most from his survey. 
The book is open to him who can read it, but he must have 
learned the alphabet. 

Biologic purification in distinction from bacterial decomposi- 
tion and as complementary to it is the great function of storage. 
Air, i.e.^ oxygen, is necessary, but green plants growing in sun- 
Hght furnish free oxygen in excess of that held in solution in 
water at a given temperature. 

The food-stimulative center, so to speak, is nitrogen; without 
it the other factors cease to be operative; hence the source of 
nitrogen is the aim of the search. This in any quantity must 
come from animal life, — guano beds, manure piles, cesspools, 
fertilized fields, sewage beds, or factory wastes. 

If the prospector observes green plants in abundance in any 
water pool he may be sure there is food not far distant. 

This food fosters one kind of growth, or many varieties. 
Diatoms, for instance, appear to thrive on such ammonia-con- 
taining water. (Miss Stickney's thesis, Jamaica Pond overturn; 
Mass. Inst. Tech.) But the mineral source of green plant food is 
that water, which travels through the ground, collecting carbon 
dioxide, nitrates, and mineral matter, bringing the most accept- 
able material to the greatest variety of plant life. A constancy 
in the particular variety year after year indicates a permanent 
condition; a variation indicates changes somewhere along the 
line. 



THE REGENERATION OF THE WATERSHED 135 

Several instances have occurred in which the removal of a hen 
yard, a stable drain, or a picnic ground has been followed by the 
improvement in the lake water. ^ 

In the case of Butte, Montana, the food for anabaena came from 
the mulch humus on the steep slopes of recently wooded hills. 
Copper sulphate proved an efficient remedy. 

In the case of Jamaica Pond the development of oscillaria 
followed the season of great mortality of smelts. The pond 
has a foul bottom with much H2S, and ^'layers" in summer with 
a sump minus oxygen 20 to 30 feet deep. The overturn in 
November brings all this to the surface, but except as fish are 
caught, the sum total of the food remains. Now and then the 
pond is completely stirred by dragging and dynamiting for the 
recovery of a drowned body; then the long grassy water weeds 
thrive to the. exclusion of all else. 

Such contaminated waters are liable to be high in organic 
matter — such wastes as wash water, leachings, etc., of various 
kinds. Creameries and starch or glucose factories, as well as 
laundries, deliver a large quantity of carbonaceous wastes, and 
frequently fats, the most objectionable from several points of 
view. Fats decompose slowly, yielding acids, but they envelop 
in a greasy film all else with which they come in contact. It 
generally costs more to recover them than they are worth. It 
is a wise policy to keep all such out of the streams. 

A great variety of chemicals go down the drains — sometimes 
to great advantage, because one precipitates or renders harmless 
the previous addition; on the other hand, sometimes one only 
enhances the danger of the other. Antiseptics interfere with 
decomposition. 

Special processes make special wastes and cannot be grouped. 
These will be discussed in a later chapter. 

The wastes most talked of are those that cause odors, — 
tannery wastes, abattoirs, drains, packing houses, canning estab- 
lishments, etc. 

The relation between loss of oxygen and gain in carbon di- 

1 See Report to Newport R.I. Board of Health by Dr. Thomas M. Drown. 



136 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

oxide in ground water has often been sought, but so far without 
wholly satisfactory results. 

The electrical processes of water purification, ozone and hypo- 
chlorite treatment, serve the double purpose of killing the organ- 
isms quickly instead of starving them out and of setting free 
nascent chlorine, or oxygen, which quickly destroys the organic 
combination. 

Tests for oxygen consumed and oxygen dissolved in this connec- 
tion are important as showing the degree of change. The germs 
present at any one time may be killed without the food having 
been destroyed and a new seeding will cause another vigorous 
growth. Many purification schemes have failed because of the 
neglect of the food factor. 

The fixation of oxygen, like the fixation of nitrogen, is a dis- 
tinctly purifying process. It means progress in the synthetic 
direction rather than degradation or breaking up of organized 
substances. The two usually go hand in hand. If there is not 
enough oxygen in the water to serve the purposes of the agents 
of decomposition, for their own purpose they will rob the nitrate 
of its acquired rights. So oxygen is sent back and forth, and 
its estimation may give valuable information of the conditions 
existing at any given moment. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY ^ 

Rural Sanitation as Affecting the Health of the 

City as well as of the Country. Sanitary 

Maintenance and Public Education 

The source of water, milk, and vegetable supplies is the im- 
mediate neighborhood, meaning five hundred miles. Cereals, 
meat, and fruit may be taken half around the globe. Canned 
milk and vegetables possibly will be depended upon more and 
more, but water seems, to present science, a local concern. 

As has been discussed, soil pollution affects water supplies and 
atmosphere as well as, to a certain extent, vegetable products. 

For clean water in the future the various communities must 
depend upon the slogan cry ''Clean up the country," i.e. in the 
country. There is space and time, and there must be the knowl- 
edge of how to do it, but with the how must go also the '' how much 
will it cost?" and ''what will be gained by it?" The end will be 
even as the beginning — economy — but economy of human 
energy and power and not saving of dollars. Of the dollars many 
more will be required to secure an efficient race of men of whom 
90 per cent (effective size) shall be efficient and 10 per cent ineffi- 
cient, instead of, as now, 10 per cent strong enough to carry the 
burden of 40 per cent inefficient, leaving 50 per cent just able to 
care for themselves, not able to help in the world's work. 

Rural sanitation — which means a high-school teaching of 
vital problems — and sanitary inspection as extended as a school 
supervisor gives, since education and reform, must always go to- 
gether, and in no department more closely than in sanitation. 
Rural sanitation will include factory inspection and disposal 
of wastes, together with instruction of factory workers, usually 

^ See frontispiece. 
137 



138 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

of non- American origin, with no knowledge of hygiene or sani- 
tation, only traditional habits which are put out of joint by 
American conditions. 

These same aliens are absorbing the farms and market 
gardens; and here, too, constant inspection and instruction are 
needed. The various milk-borne epidemics (see Framingham 
milk case) and cases of disease traced to vegetables arise 
from rural ignorance and carelessness. This is not universal, 
of course, but it is on the increase in certain sections, and with 
the constantly growing demands the subject must be coped with 
by authorities and from the sanitary point of view as a phase 
of preventive medicine. 

Hitherto the country dweller has been so isolated and has had 
so much room to isolate himself in that he has not been amenable 
to the teaching of science. The telephone and rural delivery 
have helped to mobilize the countryman's ideas, and certain 
government undertakings will meet with more favor than local 
health officers. For while the city dweller has little use for 
Uncle Sam as compared with the big business concerns which 
overshadow the Custom House and the Post Ofhce, in the rural 
districts, the United States Government is of much more con- 
sequence, and the greatest argument for a Federal Health Bureau 
comes from its possible help to the isolated country dwellers, 
all over the land. An economic as well as a humanitarian point 
of view should lead the sanitary engineer to give some thought 
to the scattered population and their needs. 

The improvement of both public and private water supplies 
throughout the country will depend largely upon the education 
of the inhabitants by visiting inspectors, whom each State should 
send out to get fundamental information. This inspection must 
be made at as little expense as possible in order to have a good 
deal to show to the legislature for the money. 

First. Tours of inspection to observe sources of pollution; 
cl^aracter of soil and vegetation, land wooded or cultivated ; to- 
pography — high or lowland, and steepness of hills and banks; 
habits and occupations of the inhabitants; sheep- washing pools, 



THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY 139 

cattle resorts, pigpens and hen yards; industries, especially those 
near streams. 

Second. If more detailed, and if plotted on maps, called a 
sanitary survey (see Newport, above, for a small bit of work), 
number and size of summer hotels, picnic grounds, distinction 
between transient and permanent population, methods of refuse 
disposal, etc., recorded on map. 

So many things are done that one would never suspect or 
think of, that a very close watch must be kept and checks made 
by field tests as far as possible. Thus, five minutes will tell which 
one of a number of streams or springs is bringing in hard water, 
which one of a group of wells is badly polluted, which stream is 
bringing iron or chlorine, etc. In a half hour's preliminary 
testing a decision may be made between a dozen samples as to 
which are so doubtful as to need to be sent to the laboratory 
for further examination. In this way much ground may be 
covered in a day or week and a fair idea be obtained of the 
chemical character of the water supplies. 

Cisterns, wells, — deep and shallow, — springs, streams, reser- 
voirs, ice ponds, lakes, etc., must be examined. 

There are to be noted sink and stable drains, cesspools, etc., 
the progressive pollution of streams, the points at which contami- 
nation occurs and the distance to which it may be traced. A 
portable outfit in the hands of an experienced person may serve 
as a most valuable adjunct. It should permit of the estimation 
of the larger organisms by a powerful pocket lens, the estima- 
tion of free ammonia, nitrites, CO2, hardness, chlorides and sul- 
phates, color, oxygen consumed in the cold, iron, nitrates, and 
the approximate determination of the dissolved oxygen. 

The outfit should be sufhcient for, say, 100 to 200 tests, and 
the solutions should last a month without perceptible change. As 
many reagents as practicable should be in the ''soloid" form. 
But previous laboratory practice and good judgment must 
accompany the outfit. It will not answer to send out a green 
hand, any more than the physician's office boy can be trusted 
to diagnose a case. 



140 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Sanitary Maintenance 

The weak link in the chain with which the platform of sanita- 
tion is held by the side of the building of civilization ready to 
Le lifted as the people pull, is the blind confidence that once 
installed the plant will run itself. 

It is the same with people: once grown the adult expects life 
to run to its end without his care. A ventilating system, a 
vacuum cleaner, a water supply, a sewer system put in accord- 
ing to plans is left to itself or to a caretaker without instructions. 

The greatest social service to be done to-day is the convincing 
of authorities that this work is only half done when they have 
accepted good devices and ordered them installed, and the 
hardest task of all is to convince the taxpayer that the constant 
maintenance is a legitimate interest on the investment so that 
he will support the authorities in their endeavor. 

Illustrations of this need may be found in the lack of mainte- 
nance of mechanical ventilating systems; in failure to create a 
fresh-air habit ; in that lack of watchful care at every point which 
is insisted upon in the policing of water supplies; and last, but 
not least, in that demand for the spread of information and that 
arousing of civic interest which make the individual a respon- 
sible part of the community. 

The sanitary structure is built to-day, as always, on clean air, 
clean soil, wholesome water, and good food. It is liable to be 
undermined at any one of the four corners. The casual passer-by 
who sees a crack in the edifice should make it his duty to see 
that it is repaired, and the man who is found digging a trench 
near by should be summarily dealt with. In other words, not 
only should efficient watchers be provided, but each one should 
report a failure to observe regulations. The informer has always 
had a bad repute, which arose from supposed spite or the per- 
sonal advantage he gained. Modern philanthropy, however, in- 
terferes in the most private concerns: it prevents a man from 
drowning himself; it prevents him from poisoning himself with 
•drugs; it should prevent him from unclean ways which harm the 



THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY 141 

community. Information as to odors and smells in the air is 
recognized as legitimate; they come under the head of nuisance. 
Information as to misuse of land in the vicinity of water supplies 
should be held a public duty, and officials should be provided 
to investigate. 

Patrolling of all watersheds is a necessity; and helpful advice, 
even money spent from public funds to aid the poor man in 
doing right should be given without stint. The watchwords in 
all this sanitary progress are helpfulness, education, conservation. 
Is it socialism to rely on the common interest and good sense 
of the citizen rather than on the paternal provision of early 
days when the common people took what was offered, asking 
no questions? No officer of the law will refuse to welcome an 
intelligent community, but not an erratic one, not one permeated 
with fads, unpracticable, irrational. Sanitary progress has been 
much impeded by the overzealous and the half -informed, and 
it is for that among other reasons that the sanitary engineer, 
trained to accuracy in testing materials and structures, is the 
best expert to tie to, if he can keep the community welfare first 
in mind and not yield to temptations of mere profit to a concern. 

During maneuvers at a State military encampment in the 
summer of 1910, an illuminating incident occurred: A milkman 
who supplied a certain regiment was seen rinsing his empty milk 
cans in foul w^ater in a pool formed by the overflow from the wash- 
stands in the rear of the mess halls. A soldier asked the man if 
he had been doing that sort of thing long, and received an affirma- 
tive reply. Asked if he intended to continue to wash milk 
vessels in that manner, the milkman said that he expected to. 
The private then made known his identity. He was a milk 
inspector of a near-by city and a member of the militia. In- 
vestigation showed that there had been sickness of an intestinal 
nature among officers and men. 

The sanitary engineer's power for influence will depend on 
the intelligent progressiveness of the community and on the cre- 
dence they will give him, as well as on his own accomplishment. 
He must be ably seconded by the instructive inspector, the 



142 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

trained woman who will educate the housewife and the children 
in the small everyday details of sanitation which make up two- 
thirds of the improvement. 

For the rural districts there must be the public illustrated 
lecture, moving pictures, if possible, as of the fly and the mo- 
squito; and frequent sanitary exhibits, as the tuberculosis and 
milk exhibits. 

The isolated farmhouse, summer hotel or institution, factory 
or hospital, needs far more careful study than has been given, 
for from such spots, untouched by the spirit and knowledge of 
modern science, comes a large part of our infection. 

The sanitation of a city will shortly include not only the 
sources of its water supply but also those of its milk and food 
supplies. 

The cremation of refuse must, even on the farm premises, 
take the place of earth burial, and the fundamental principles 
of earth purification be taught in the rural schools. Then sand 
filtration will be so generally understood that its adoption for 
supplies will be readily granted. 

As to the quantity of water to be supplied, past experience 
has shown that needs have increased far beyond estimates in 
every case. Larger populations and larger use per person; use of 
water for power (elevators), for heating, for various manufactur- 
ing purposes, and above all, wastes in adding pressure to old 
plumbing, — all these causes have led to an increase impossible 
to keep up with. 

The engineer of the future will need to sound a warning, even 
though he recognizes these facts in his report. Many serious 
troubles have arisen from the too low estimation given by the 
engineer either through ignorance of the law or from a desire to 
give low estimates to please the people, trusting to a pressure of 
circumstances to force them to future expenditure. Epidemics 
are costly if efficient teachers. 

The needs of a farmhouse or a country residence covering 
about twenty people may often be best met by a ground supply. 
It is cold, and so acceptable; it is clear, colorless, odorless, and 



THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY 143 

sparkling. There is danger that it may show- iron, may attack 
pipes, may draw from undesirable sources when the water table 
has become lowered. 

Experience in the locality, records of other wells, geological 
knowledge, etc., are necessary to the inspector. 

Except near foothills, streams are not to be relied on. The 
habit of common use is too firmly fixed. 

Occasionally a clear mountain stream offers an abundance; 
for such be thankful. 

Open risks may be more easily guarded against than under- 
ground cracks from earth slips and frost displacement. 

The waste disposal from these detached establishments with 
plenty of soil and room offers no great difficulty. 

Small factories, institutions with about 1000 population, are 
beginning to see the wisdom of careful planning in regard to 
water and sewage. 

Deep wells or considerable streams are a common alternative. 

Deep wells, as has been shown above, carry, usually, consider- 
able dissolved mineral because of the long distances traversed 
and the strata percolated on the way. Sometimes softening 
plants are set up most profitably. 

The securing of sufficient surface water within a reasonable 
distance may necessitate filtration or some preliminary treat- 
ment. What this shall be requires the advice of an expert as 
an insurance against failure. 

The small town is only an expanded instance of the factory 
or institution, and the same rules apply even more emphatically 
as to the need of study of the various possible sources and their 
probable deterioration in the course of a few years. 

This deterioration results from: 

(i) Rapid percolation instead of slow; less complete reactions; 

(2) Greater distance; polluted source; too short time for 
natural purification; 

(3) Closer settlement near sources; new factories, etc. 
Reckless waste includes the soakage of the collecting ground 

with refuse and the neglect to use the fertilizing portions. The 



144 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

purifying soil is so abused, overworked, that a whole watershed 
becomes needlessly contaminated. 

A gang of laborers, a family on the mountain side, one individ- 
ual on a small tributary, may pollute a town supply. It is only 
widespread education and a sense of responsibility, besides care- 
ful policing, that can protect a watershed ; hence the trend toward 
letting it go and trusting to filtration before using. 

The long time required to clean polluted earth should be con- 
sidered in estimating the advantage of prevention. Keeping a 
water-collecting area clean is analogous to other sanitary ways 
in relation to streets, garbage, food, etc. The habit of proper 
disposal of wastes is one to be learned in childhood. People 
must be city-broken as a dog is house-broken. The offense of 
one person dropping a paper or a banana skin is of small account, 
but the offense of one thousand is intolerable. On a lakeside 
one picnic party a year did not show effects, but Sunday 
crowds all the season were a menace. 

Since the danger is a thousandfold more when infecting mate- 
rial is washed directly into running or still water without earth 
filtration, the inspector of a watershed should have a watchful 
eye to such possibilities. 

The protective distance has been arbitrarily set at 200 feet. 
The expert can decide if a less distance will serve. 

In a city, collection of garbage and thorough draining are pos- 
sible so that fertilizer for lawns may be used with freedom, 
but a village depending on wells, or any cluster of houses on a 
limited watershed needs careful study as to dangers. 

The sanitary expert, in the bumptiousness of his youth, should 
not be too hard on the average man, since as late as 187 1 the 
Chemical News quotes a water analysis of a spring at Tun- 
bridge Wells which it rightly calls a curiosity: 

" The water is clear, with a taste savoring strongly of steel, 
and from the experiments of different physicians it appears that 
the component parts of this water are steely particles, marine 
salts, an oily matter, an ocherous substance, a volatile spirit 
too subtle for analysis, and a simple fluid." 



THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY 145 

In the prospecting trip outlined above, the information and 
experience gained may be turned to account later. State boards 
of health have always concerned themselves with the rural needs, 
at least Massachusetts and Michigan have done so. 

The newer schools of sanitation starting up in the universi- 
ties have an excellent chance for public service in training some 
students along these lines — true economic prevention. 

The Instructive Inspector for the country district must have, 
like the worker in the crowded alleys, a forceful but persuasive 
personality and a sympathy with the subjects of his teaching, 
an appreciation of their difficulties and an inventiveness to meet 
the countless objections. 

Popular science has two sides: it makes it easy to stir people 
up, but on the other hand it makes difficult their sitting still 
long enough to explain fully the reasons for the slowness with 
which reforms must be entered upon. 

Land Disposal as Affecting Wells 

Well water is used at some time during the year by a large 
part of the population of the United States. Picnic grounds, 
summer resorts, country boarding places, the roadside spring, 
the town pump, the schoolhouse well, all offer added risks to 
the farmhouse supply. 

The precautions taken by city authorities are all set at naught 
by the importation of typhoid fever each season through re- 
turning vacationists. The health rate of the country districts 
is unnecessarily lowered and waste is incurred all along the line. 

It is one of the most difficult tasks allotted to the sanitary 
expert to convince people of danger in their own well. The 
most common question is, How far must the cesspool be from 
the well? Next, If the well is in solid rock, how can it become 
contaminated? 

Whenever normal chlorine is known the proof is not very 
difficult. A bushel of salt often reports an unsuspected con- 
nection. Potassium iodide has been used as a tracer, but the 
high nitrate and chlorine content of the well water taken to- 



146 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

gether give to the engineer his basis. How to interpret, is the 
question. 

Sanitary Legislation as a Means or Education 

Sanitary inspection frequently shows conditions favorable to 
growth of disease germs quite unsuspected. Dwelling houses 
should not be converted into laboratories for the culture of disease- 
producing bacteria. 

Sanitary maxims to be learned in school: quick removal of 
all wastes, cleanliness, dryness. 

Isolation of all infectious and contagious cases for the purpose 
of destroying the germs excreted. 

Life a compromise in this as in most other conditions. 

Water, pure, not '' repentant," was a demand of forty years 
ago; now reformation is accepted. 

"The lives of most men are in their own hands, and as a rule 
the just verdict after death would be felo-de-se. ^^ 

"Health must be earned, it can seldom be bought." 

— Dr. F. H. Hamilton. 

The social machinery of sanitary maintenance includes boards 
of control, commissions, state boards of health, city health 
officers, inspectors, corps of engineers, chemists, and biologists. 
Many of these legally constituted guardians of public health 
have the power of regulation of conduct individual and corporate. 
Many are given certain powers of constructive operation and 
legislation. More and more generally the sanitary engineer is the 
executive officer of these bodies of public importance. 

A most illuminating light on rural hygienic conditions has 
been thrown by a report on the Farm Water Supplies of Minne- 
sota, Bulletin No. 154, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. 
Agric. and Am. Jour. Hygiene, August, 1910, p. 654. The authors 
say that rural sanitation is of vital importance to cities and may 
extend far beyond the individual farms exhibiting disregard for 
the laws of modern sanitation. Seventy-nine water supplies 
were examined; 20 were found in good condition, 59 showed 
strong evidence of pollution (this does not mean a percentage 



THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY 



147 



ior the State, since selection of probable cases of pollution was 
made). Carelessness in regard to protection against surface 
wash and surface seepage is responsible for a large proportion 
of the contaminations indicated. The order of susceptibiKty 
was found to be dug, bored, and driven wells. The drilled well 
should be better than the driven, being as a rule deeper, but the 
seepage of surface water down the outside of the casing, con- 
taminating the water-bearing strata, is evidently not sufficiently 
guarded against. The rivers, surface reservoirs^ and cisterns were 
nil polluted (this speaks volumes against the habits of the people) . 

The authors conclude that "the condition of the water supply 
usually represents the sanitary condition of the farm and there- 
fore indicates the potentiality of a typhoid outbreak." 

The greatest difficulty is often experienced by constructing engi- 
neers in keeping the workmen from drinking the water pumped 
from the trenching pumps if it is cold and clear. Several cases 
have occurred of disease contracted in this way. 



EXAMPLE OF SANITARY WATER ANALYSIS 

Parts per 1,000,000 
Locality, South Shore, Massachusetts. 
Description of Water, well in hard gravel. 



Physical 
Examination 



Chemical 
Examination 



Turbidity- 
Sediment 
Color 

Cold 
Hot 



Odor 



Free Ammonia 

Albuminoid Ammonia 

Nitrites 

Nitrates 

Hardness 

Chlorine 



May 21, 1897 


July 17, 1897 


none 


slight 


none 


white flocculent 


none 


none 


none 


faintly earthy 


none 


(I u 


.056 


.394 


.044 


.040 


.001 


.150 


1-750 


10.000 



44.0 



S4.0 



Fifty feet away from this well was the uncemented cesspool 
with a drain from a house used by a small family during the three 
summer months and cleaned only annually. The quick response 
of the well to the use of the neighboring house showed the 



148 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

owner most conclusively the great value of the water for garden 
irrigation. 

This belief in appearance has been fostered by physicians and 
health authorities, who have been known to publish statements 
that drinking water should be colorless and odorless and to 
prescribe bottled waters rather than allow the use of brown 
surface water which may at times develop an odor from the 
growth of some inoffensive plant. A few synura or asterionella 
in a reservoir will set the telephone ringing in the health office, 
when the same persons have been contentedly drinking filtered 
sewage from carboys. The latter of course looked right and 
smelled right. 

The most skeptical are sometimes convinced that the chemical 
tests do mean something. A small city was increasing its supply 
by laying open-jointed drain pipes in a wet valley, as usual, 
without inspection of conditions after the work was done. The 
chemist's report that some pollution was certainly leaching in was 
combated by the authorities as impossible until all parties visited 
the spot where they found a new house just built, an open privy 
and plenty of horse manure distributed directly over the pipes. 

A well, supposed by the owner of the house to be far distant 
from any source of contamination, showed decided nitrates, but 
not excess chlorine. A search revealed the fact that a large hot- 
bed had been made within eight feet of the well. 

The influence of temperature in permitting offensive decom- 
position should not be overlooked, especially when adopting a 
method successful in a warmer or a colder place. Breitzke^ states 
in his investigation of the Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn, N. Y., that 
the bottom sludge gives off offensive gases at 65 to 70° F., and 
since a temperature of about 70° is maintained the year round 
it is easy to see why the nuisance exists even in winter. In many 
rivers nuisance is perceived only in the hottest summer weather 
when the temperature is high and the oxygen is lower because 
of that fact as well as because the organic matter is using it up 
faster. 

1 Technology Quarterly, Vol. XXI, 1908, No. 3. 



THE INTERDEPENDENCE OF TOWN AND COUNTRY 149 

It is this influence of temperature as well as that of sunlight 
that makes advisable the covering of filtration works. 

Typhoid Fever Prevented by Lake Superior Water 

(Extract from report by E. H. Pomeroy, M. D., Health Officer 
of Calumet township, Michigan.) 

" Some interesting points have come to notice regarding some- 
what of an epidemic of t>3)hoid fever which abated on the advent 
of cold weather. The points are upon the effects of drinking 
water in the propagation of the disease. The Calumet and 
Hecla Mining Company have a system of waterworks by which 
water from Lake Superior is furnished all the families on the 
mining location, and to the village of Red Jacket, which is entirely 
surrounded by the mining location. Calumet village is on high 
and rolling ground immediately joining the mining location, 
on the east, but without the water privileges of the mining loca- 
tion. Calumet village has a population of about 1000 people. 
Red Jacket has a population of about 3000. The mining location 
has a population of about 8000. Blue Jacket is a local desig- 
nation of one portion of the mining location and there are in 
Blue Jacket about 700 people. During the year 1889, without 
the benefit of the Lake Superior water privilege, there were 14 
cases of typhoid fever in Blue Jacket. During the year 1890, 
with the Lake Superior water privilege, there has been but one 
case. In Red Jacket there have been 3 cases. On the mining 
location, including Blue Jacket, there have been 18 cases. In 
Calumet village there have been 51 cases. In the Blue Jacket 
case the disease was contracted while the person was visiting 
at another house on the location where others had the disease 
and where water was used from a well which was subsequently 
condemned, an analysis of the water showing it unfit for culi- 
nary or drinking purposes. Nearly all the cases on the mining 
location were developed in houses where well water was used 
during the warmest weather on account of the well water being 
colder than the Lake Superior water and, perhaps, because the 
wells were more convenient than the hydrants. Of the entire 



150 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

72 cases only one was believed to have adhered to the use of 
Lake Superior water for both drinking and culinary purposes. 

" That is to say, 11,700 inhabitants, with Lake Superior water 
to drink and use, had only 18 cases of typhoid fever, which is 
about 1.54 per 1000 inhabitants, while 1000 inhabitants of ad- 
joining territory, without Lake Superior water, had 51 cases of 
typhoid fever, or 34 times as many as in the part supplied by 
pure water. 

" Ofhce of the State Board of Health, 
Lansing, Mich., August 25, 1892." 

The trained sanitary inspector will not wait until complaints 
are made by citizens, but will investigate the conditions affect- 
ing health on all premises in his district, especially with reference 
to soil pollution, the purity of the water supply, the storage 
and disposal of garbage, rubbish, excreta, and waste liquids. 
With records of these facts carefully prepared and conveniently 
arranged for reference, the health board is in a position to author- 
ize operations for keeping the district free from refuse mate- 
rials, the laws of the State being well adapted to the enforcement 
of all necessary ordinances for preventing accumulations of 
unhealthful substances. 

'^ To retain the soil in the vicinity of dwellings in its natural 
condition of purity, or, if it has been polluted, to protect it as 
far as possible from further defilement, is the most useful routine 
service which can be rendered by a rural board of health." ^ 

1 Circular no, New Jersey Board of Health. 



CHAPTER X 

FILTRATION. WHEN RESORTED TO, HOW EFFICIENT 

IT MAY BE. STERILIZATION, WHEN INDICATED. 

UNDERGROUND OR NATURAL FILTERED 

WATERS 

If the water supply of a town present or prospective is not of 
the desired quality, how can it be made satisfactory and what 
will it cost? 

Let it be clearly understood that there are two distinct pur- 
poses to be served by filtration, the one an improvement in 
appearance and the other the removal of dangerous qualities. 
The construction and management of the filter depend upon the 
predominance of one or the other of these ideas. Expense in 
maintenance is also a minor matter in cases of danger to the com- 
munity from imperfect filtration. The time when legal redress 
will be given for careless management of so important a part of 
healthful city life is quite within sight. 

There is no doubt in the author's mind of the ideal method of 
treatment of spoiled water. It is coagulation and decoloriza- 
tion by electrically prepared aluminum hydrate in the water itself, 
followed by filtration after subsidence and then just before 
entering the mains an aeration by ozonized air. This will be 
difficult to regulate and will be hard on the first few hundred feet 
of the mains, but will yield by far the safest fluid and one to 
which nothing solid has been added. 

Some experiments in the use of ozone as a renovating agent 
made in the preparation of a thesis by R. W. Home and J. P. 
Wentworth gave on Charles River water a reduction of bacteria 
from 164 to I in a cubic centimeter, or 99.4 per cent and a reduc- 
tion of oxygen consumed from 32.8 parts per million to 22,9, or 
30.1 per cent. 

151 



152 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

On a Fenway (Boston) sample showing 88,200 bacteria per cubic 
centimeter, the ozonized sample gave 1200, a reduction of 98.7 
per cent; oxygen consumed, from 10.5 to 7.2 parts per million, a 
reduction of 31.4 per cent; and an almost complete removal of the 
very disagreeable odor. 

These were both clear-water samples. The results on turbid 
waters were not nearly so satisfactory, and the whole series indi- 
cated the need of further study of various kinds of accompanying 
conditions before any far-reaching conclusions can be made. 

Water supplies for cities and towns are required to fulfill 
separate functions, each function demanding a different quality 
and quantity, the lowest quality and highest quantity being 
required for general purposes of flushing streets and garden 
watering, etc., a medium quality and quantity for manufacturing 
purposes, steam raising, etc. 

Of the highest quality and lowest quantity for drinking and 
cooking — potable water — five gallons a day per person is 
ample. Surface waters, if potable, are usually good for all other 
purposes, better than necessary, and hence more expensive to 
a city. 

Ground, or well, waters if from shallow sources are most 
variable and unreliable. 

Deep ground waters are usually potable, but too ''hard " 
for most manufacturing uses. 

The changing conditions under which cities and towns are 
growing requires, or will soon require, a change of attitude 
toward water supplies, their sources, care, and variations. The 
point of view must vary as circumstances point the way and 
certain fundamental truths of science should give a watchful 
public warning as to needs of prevention. 

The sanitary engineer trained to-day should hold present 
teachings with a certain elastic grip and use the utmost common 
sense in making plans ahead. 

Filtration is a coarse and then a fine straining, accompanied or 
not by decolorization for the removal of bacteria and other 
suspended matters. Filtration may be followed by sterilization 



FILTRATION 153 

by chemical means, chlorine, hypochlorites, etc., by antiseptics, 
by ozone, these treatments resulting in general cleanness of the 
supply, and if sewage is treated, in the innocuousness of the 
effluent. 

Since the theory of filtration is the separation of sohds how- 
ever finely divided from solutions of whatever degree of con- 
centration, it is evident that the spaces between the grains 
of filtering medium must be infinitely small to prevent the 
passage of the infinitely little. From this mathematically im- 
possible standard the practical ones recede toward the commer- 
cial requirement of good appearance obtained with considerable 
speed. 

The study of sands in the complementary character of sizes 
and speeds of effiuent led to the rule of effective size and of the 
coefficient of uniformity. 

Filtration is resorted to — 

(i) For aesthetic reasons, to improve the appearance of the 
water, remove turbidity, color, etc. 

(2) As a precaution, a sort of insurance against risk of in- 
fection which is possible rather than probable. 

(3) For renovation of spoiled water. To increase available 
supply demands the most rigid inspection. 

(4) For cleansing dirty water to a degree that it may be 
admitted to respectable streams or lakes. 

(5) For treatment of sewage to hasten its stages towards 
inoffensiveness. 

The ideal water, clear, cold, colorless, is often possible only 
with artificial means. Turbidity is always objectionable to the 
consumer, whatever its source. The acceptance of color as harm- 
less is an acquired taste based on more or less knowledge. 

Ground waters are filtered waters and therefore free from color 
and turbidity except those carrying iron and iron compounds 
which cloud or precipitate on exposure to the air. Occasionally 
these waters prove very troublesome. 

The exact treatment and the proportions of chemicals to use 
are matters of experimentation in each case. Rarely do ground 



154 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

waters carry clay for any length of time, even if on first driving 
the well shows it. 

On the other hand surface waters very frequently need clari- 
fication, especially at certain times of year because of surface 
disturbance of clayey soil. 

Surface waters cannot answer the requirements of cold the 
year round, and many such require filtration to remove turbidity 
and color. The turbidity of surface waters is caused by floating 
particles of many kinds which require removal. 
Filtration is preceded by 
Clarification by 
sedimentation, 
straining, 
coagulation, then 

straining, in order to remove matters in 
suspension, as 
clay, 
leaves, 
organisms, 
bacteria, 
solution, as 

ammonia. Precipitation slight to nil, 
nitrates, 
chlorides, 

organic substances, 
various other substances. 
There is no real purification unless these are taken out, but 
there is satisfactory renovation when ''all that's going ashore" 
gets there — when activity stops. 

The principles of filtration, like those of agriculture, are few 
and simple; it is the carrying of them out under diverse and 
changeable conditions that requires skill and judgment. 

An artificial filter is a section of earth of graded sizes enclosed 
in water-tight compartments to control rate of flow. 

The principle in earth filtration is slow percolation with the 
most active factors, humus and lime, left out. The rapid motion 



FILTRATION 1 5 5 

desired makes the earthy and clayey particles undesirable, so 
that the water filter as generally used degenerates into a merely 
mechanical colander or strainer which might as well be made 
of metal, provided any would resist the corroding action of 
water. 

The effectiveness of the filter as regards quantity lies in the 
grading of the sand so as to permit free flow in the lower por- 
tions, suction helping to pull down through the thin top layer 
of fine sand and through a gelatinous skin of bacterial jelly, 
thus freeing the water from all insoluble particles. The real 
work of the filter is done in the top inch or less. The body of 
the enclosed section serves for aeration. It has been shown 
how great a part oxygen plays in the processes of purification. 

The treatment of each water by filtration is governed by the 
results desired, by the willingness to pay for those results, by 
the character of the water to be treated, which may be 
good, but unaesthetic, 
sometimes doubtful, 
generally bad, 
variable. 

The success of the treatment depends on the construction of 
the plant on correct principles, but far more on intelligent 
management. 

There are two types of filters, first, that which approximates 
nature's method, called the slow sand filter, in which the material 
is washed and sized and spread evenly so as to avoid channels 
by which an untreated water may escape. The same general 
principle holds for water and sewage, although the latter is much 
better treated on unwashed sand (land treatment), a larger pro- 
portion of the foodstuff being saved. There is also the filter 
which improves appearance and adds safety by a coagulant 
which is then removed under pressure by mechanical means. 
This is well named the American filter, for its rates come up to 
I GO to 125 million gals, per acre per day, while the slow sand 
filter is only .5 to 5 million gals, per acre per day and the natural 
method may be toVu of that. The mechanical filter is truly a 



156 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

hurry process; it demands as much extra care as does the 
twentieth-century Hmited. This management has become so 
much of an art and is discussed in so many separate treatises, 
that only the laboratory phases will be touched upon here. 

The engineer's laboi*atory is for control of daily routine and 
is fitted for the making of many tests of a kind, but of few 
kinds. Absolute cleanliness is demanded, even in a sewage lab- 
oratory. Watchfulness for indications which may not have 
attained the stage of proof is of prime importance. For in- 
stance, one of the great dangers in a filter is the formation of a 
channel or path by which untreated water may escape. A 
slight increase in bacteria count would show this possibiKty. 
Tests should be more frequent while this is in doubt. 

Insufficient aeration shows itself in the peculiar odor familiar 
to workers but difficult to describe. Disturbance of the upper 
layers often shows itself in the increase of oxygen consumed. 
Eternal vigilance is the price of most things w^orth having. 

If the city is willing to pay for it, artificially filtered water 
may be almost as safe as the ideal spring water. 

To-day, however, the purification of polluted water for do- 
mestic use has reached that state of perfection at which it has 
become the practice of reputable engineers to take polluted 
water from a stream at the very doors of the city and purify 
it, rather than to expend large sums of money in conserving an 
unpolluted supply miles away in a sparsely settled district. 
The case of Philadelphia at the present time is pertinent. On 
January 4, 1901, the United States Senate Committee of the 
District of Columbia convened at New York to discuss with the 
engineering profession the question of filtration of water supply 
at Washington, D. C. Mr. Rudolph Hering, M. Am. Soc. C. E., 
stated in his testimony with reference to the experience of 
Philadelphia that in 1883 he was engaged by that city to make 
studies for the new city water supply. As the subject of water 
filtration was not fully developed at that time he recommended 
an unfiltered water, taken from the Blue Ridge. More recently, 
during his connection with the Philadelphia waterworks, he 



FILTRATION 157 

recommended the Schuylkill River and the Delaware, because 
of the fact that this water could now be made sufficiently pure 
for use, and under the circumstances it presented a more feasible 
plan from every standpoint, for both present and future gener- 
ations. 

It becomes necessary, then, in considering pollution in a river 
from the standpoint of water supply, to make allowance for the 
fact that the water can be purified and that its present pollu- 
tion does not constitute a complete loss of resource. Under 
such circumstances the actual amount of damage done consists of 
the difference between the cost of pumping raw water for direct 
use and the cost and maintenance of a filtration system.^ 

Careless management may be criminal. 

Previous sedimentation with or without coagulation, and lim- 
ited storage, enable better and quicker work to be done. 

The danger is decreased in proportion as the premium paid is 
high. 

How much danger still remains from the minute organisms of 
which as yet we know little, protozoa and the like, is uncertain. 
While one builds inflammable houses one must take some risk; 
while man uses renovated water he must take his chance that 
the renovation may not always at all times be complete. 

The engineer of to-morrow will need an open mind on all 
phases of water filtration and incidentally on sewage filtration. 
Researches by the experimental method will settle some now 
doubtful questions. Probably renovation rather than conser- 
vation will continue to be the rule in settled communities, but 
in new regions where there is yet unsoiled water to be had, the 
policy of preservation will undoubtedly gain ground. 

All renovating action uses up oxygen, even the changes of the 
harmless matter, in tanks or beds. 

Continued straining goes on when there is a little food and 
much air. Intermittent straining is required where there is 
much food and hence rapid diminution of air, then time is a 
decided element used largely as a preventive measure. From 

1 Water-Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 72, U. S. Geological Survey. 



158 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

what we know to-day straining does not purify, and effluents 
''good as spring water" still carry nitrates and ammonia into 
streams, because of hurry and because the action goes on away 
from green plants which alone can really purify — take out 
Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Calcium, etc. 

We shall refer to examples later, showing that self-purification 
of rivers is mostly accomplished in this way. It is logical, then, to 
try to reach a more nearly original quality in the water sent out. 

For mingling with the waters of a usable stream it is not 
enough that the sewage effluent be non-putrescible as it leaves 
the filter, for if it carries dissolved organic matter, as the efflu- 
ents of chemical precipitation works usually do, when diluted 
with water carrying organisms it will furnish them food. 

In this respect the septic tank, which is planned to dissolve as 
much as possible of the suspended matters, is not suited to dis- 
charge into a stream without first passing its contents through a 
sand filter. 

Certain controverted points are likely to occupy the attention 
of students for some years to come, such as how much pollu- 
tion will a given body of water receive and care for satisfac- 
torily? That is, will the oxygen dissolved and the. clean water 
be sufficient to absorb the putrescible matters added ? 

When has a given stream reached the limit of safety? 

Where shall its purification take place, at the intake or after 
it has been through several settling basins and reservoirs; that 
is, just after pollution or just before use? 

Who shall be obliged to purify the water, those polluting it 
or those wishing to use it? 

Shall the method used be the one which gives the best results 
or the one which costs least and gives fair results? 

Trade wastes may be sterilized by boiling or by antiseptics 
and then need mixing with domestic sewage for the purpose of 
seeding for decomposition. 

America is rapidly approaching that congestion of manu- 
facturing existing in England. R. S. Weston gives the West 
Riding as an example, 2005 factories representing ten industries 



FILTRATION 



159 



within an area of 2750 square miles. Only 290, less than 15 
per cent, discharged untreated wastes into the small streams. 

There is likely to be friction between factories and towns for 
some years to come until the community welfare is put before 
individual gain. 

Cost of filtering river water is offset by cost of not filtering. 

Whether to use raw or to filter depends upon many circum- 
stances. 

Questions to be Answered 

When is a water bad enough to justify the outlay? 

Cost per milKon gallons plus taxes ? 

May cost be recovered in lessened death rate ? ^ 

When is a water too bad to clean? 

(This will lead to sewage filtration.) 

When is simple sterilization without filtration sufficient? 

When is sterilization with incomplete filtration advisable? 



A Sand Filter 








Depth of water, 4.2 feet. 


Effective 
size, 
mm. 


Uniformity 
coefficient. 


Per cent of 

"voids" 

or air space. 


.to 3 ft. Of filter ^ Medium.:: 

^^^d ^Coarse.... 

1.20 in. coarse "mortar" sand.. 

0.60 in. buckshot gravel 

0.7"; in. pea erravel 


0.21 
0.28 

0.35 
0.52 

1-83 
1.47 

17- 

20. 


1.6 
1.6 
1.9 
5-4 
3-6 

6.5 
1.2 

1-5 


44 
43 
41 
32 
31 
33 
35 

36 


2 

I 

7 
8 


0.75 in. walnut gravel 

1.33 in coarse stones. 







Rate = 1.5 to 4 million gallons per acre per day. 

Rate = 1.44 to 3.84 gallons per square foot per hour. 58.5 
to 156.0 vertical velocity, mm. per hour. Bacteria per grm. of 
sand: Dayton, fine, 180,000; Dayton, medium, 290,000; Dayton, 
coarse, 440,000; Coney Island, 280,000. 

Organic matter (N. as alb. am.), 2 parts per 100,000; clay, 
0.3 per cent; CaCOs + MgCOs, about i per cent. 

1 Engineering Record, August 21, 1909, p. 198. Profits of Water Filtration; 
Director Neff, Philadelphia. First half year of 1907, 5005 cases typhoid reported. 
1908, 2195; first six months of 1909, 1383. 



l6o CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Effective size means that lo per cent by weight is finer than 

A 

that size. Uniformity coefficient is the ratio of — when 60 per 

cent is finer than A and 10 per cent is finer than B. 

The body of a filter is always a mass of clean sand of varying 
sizes but always fine on the top. This mass supports a thin 
gelatinous layer in which the particles to be removed, bacteria, 
clays, etc., are enmeshed and prevented from following the 
liquid down. This gelatinous film in a slow sand filter is gradu- 
ally collected from the water itself, and so the efficiency of the 
filter is an increasing quantity until the slow rate demands a 
removal of the layer. 

In the hurry or mechanical process the gelatinous substance 
is supplied by a chemical sponge of aluminum or iron hydrate 
in which the objectionable matter, color included (does iron 
take out color as well?), is imbedded. This thicker, more volu- 
minous layer is removed by reversed clean water flow when too 
compact. 

A satisfactory efiiuent from either filter must conform to 
standards of safety and of appearance. Such water is never 
cold, but it may be clear, colorless and so far as people notice, 
odorless. The sparkling quality which makes spring water so 
palatable is not usually found from the mechanical filter, but 
the added mineral substances may in part improve the taste, 
however little the average person notices them. 

The sanitary engineer of to-morrow, who will, as we have said, 
be a social economist as well, has to consider the human side of 
the question as to the expense the community will bear to secure 
safety or pleasure. 

The choice of a water supply may have been irrevocably made 
or it may still be open. 

The best means of purifying or of filtering, especially of mechan- 
ical applications, have been the much-discussed problems of the 
past twenty years, and it is largely through these methods that 
the engineer has been gaining his foothold in sanitary purification. 

If the particles were inorganic and harmless the matter would 



FILTRATION l6l 

be simple, but with millions of living organisms, some of which 
may be pathogenic and all of which are undesirable, the difficulties 
of hurry processes are increased. Time is what nature requires; 
when man meddles, he must take the consequences. 

Treatises on filtration and abundant current literature give 
details and illustrations which need not be repeated here. A 
brief statement of general principles will suffice. 

A polluted (infected or dangerous or merely contaminated) 
fluid from which tIo to i per cent is to be removed or rendered 
harmless is subjected, (i) to filtration through sand in large 
quantities, or through porous porcelain in small quantities, with 
or without previous chemical coagulation; (2) to sterilization by 
electricity, h}^ochlorites, or ozone; (3) to storage, i.e., time and 
sunlight. Particles if not too fine may be thus disposed of, but 
what of the soluble substances? Are they, perchance, toxic? Too 
little is known as yet of the products of decomposition of the nitro- 
gen substances, the time they remain stable, and the effect on 
the human organism to give any authoritative statement. The 
reactions given in Part II, Ex. 10, indicate possibilities of 
alkaloidal properties which may make filtered sewage undesir- 
able for human consumption. This suspicion is growing in many 
minds, and prevention of contamination rather than cleansing 
operation is likely to come to the front in the next twenty years. 

Wastes themselves in much more concentrated form will be 
treated and thus the objectionable substances be more completely 
removed, or they will be otherwise disposed of than into water 
which may be needed for domestic purposes. 

The subject of trades wastes is too new to have extensive 
literature and is too compHcated to be discussed as general 
practice. Some instances will be found in Part II, Ex. 11. 

Notes on Sand Filters 

Depth of sand and gravel in mechanical and slow filters is 
about the same. 

The Jewell filter at Little Falls, N. J., an example of the best 
type of mechanical filter, has two inches crushed quartz, 5 inches 



l62 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

fine quartz gravel, 130 inches screened quartz sand. The same 
filter at Cincinnati has 30 inches of sand of effective size, 35 mm. 
The slow sand filter at Denver is built with a 12-inch layer of 
gravel varying in size from between 2 and 3 inches to between J 
and f inch. On this is placed 36 inches of sand of effective size 
of 53 mm. In the new Pittsburg filters provision is made for a 
maximum of 48 inches and a minimum of 36 inches of sand. At 
Columbus, Ohio, the mechanical filters have 10 inches of gravel 
and 36 inches of sand. 

On the whole, a depth of about 36 inches of sand seems to give 
the best satisfaction. The best effective size seems to be from 
35 mm. to 50 mm. Although theoretically the coefficient of 
uniformity should be as near unity as possible, practically, 
filters giving satisfaction are constructed of sand whose coeffi- 
cient of uniformity varies from i.i to 2.1 and even higher. 

The head used on any given filter must be decided from the 
desired rate of flow and the internal friction, together with experi- 
ments as to the best results for that particular filter. 

The one great distinction in the action of the mechanical and 
the slow sand filters is, aside from the relative speed of opera- 
tion, the fact that the mechanical filter merely acts as a strainer, 
though a very efficient one. No chance is given for any chemical 
action aside from that involved in the action of the coagulant. 
This produces an effluent free or practically free from all sus- 
pended matter, yet containing in solution all the substances 
contained in the raw water. The slow sand filter, on the other 
hand, allows of chemical action in the interstices of the sand as 
the water passes through, thus giving an effluent not only free 
from suspended matter but also free to a great extent from 
unmineralized solutions. It is an open question as to whether 
these organic solutions are at all harmful, and even if they are 
so considered, their effects are apparently so slight that the 
greater speed of the mechanical filter might be a controlling 
factor in the choice at a place where space or sand was at a 
premium. 

Sometimes a combination of the two forms is the best solution 



FILTRATION 



163 



of a given problem, as at Washington, where it was found 
necessary, at certain seasons of the year, to add coagulant to 
the water before passing it through the filters in order to take 
out the very fine clayey turbidity peculiar to the Potomac 
River. 

The rate of slow sand filters is much more important in deter- 
mining the quality of the effluent than is the rate of mechanical 
filters, and should, therefore, be largely dependent on the kind 
of raw water and on the quality of efiiuent desired. In the best 
filters of recent years it averages about three miUion gallons per 
acre per twenty-four hours. In mechanical filters, on the other 
hand, the rate seems to have a less direct effect on the effluent, 
and varies in good filters from eighty million to one hundred and 
eighty million gaUons per acre per twenty-four hours. 





Some Waters before 


AND AFTER FILTRATION 








Free A. 


Alb. A. 


CI. 


Nitrate. 1 Nitrite. 


0. con. 


Bac. 


Har. 


Lawrence Water. 


Raw .... 
Filtered. . 


.084 
.068 


. 202 
. 109 


2.2 
2.2 


1 
.14 .003 
.31 .005 


3-9 
2.8 


i 
14,000 

258 


Hudson, N. Y. 


Raw .... 
Filtered. . 


.070 
.024 


.140 
.106 


30 
30 


. 100 
.100 


trace 
none 


6:500 
4. 100 


787 
57 




1 
Springfield, Mass. 


Raw .... 
Filtered. . 
Raw .... 
Filtered. . 


.069 
.067 
.022 
.005 


.227 
.191 
.142 
.096 


17.0 
17.0 
150 
16.0 


.060 
.060 
. 120 
.170 


.001 
.001 
.000 
.000 


5.100 
4.500 
2.800 
2.500 




10 

13 
6 

7 



Sand Filters for Potable Waters 

The water used is the best obtainable, previously settled to be 
rid of coarser suspended substances. 

Although a sand filter does not yield a germ-free water, it 
should be made to do the best it can. Experience shows that a 



1 64 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

well-managed filter may yield a filtrate with less than loo per c.c. 
Channels may form or other disturbances of the filtering layer 
may occur so that a great increase may at any moment occur. 
Even daily bacterial examination may not show this, so that, 
while frequent examinations are necessary, it is usually too much 
to expect to make a daily examination of a large number of filters, 
except in times of cholera outbreak. 

Each filter bed or basin should be so arranged that it can be 
shut off from the rest. The rapidity of flow has much to do with 
the success of filtration. The German rule is not over loo mm. 
per hour through a layer of 30 cm. of filter sand. If more water 
is needed, then more filters must be provided. 

River water, owing to rapidity of flow, to turbidity, etc., is 
not often perceptibly full of algae, as is that of ponds and basins, 
which we shall consider later, but there are many kinds of fungi, 
such as crenothrix and yeast and of algae and diatoms in river 
water. In Poughkeepsie, on a hot day, the bed was clogged in 
48 hours. 

Clean sand strains only, but the nitrifying organism coat- 
ing it does aid in burning up organic matter. Clay is a 
decolorizer. Better a little clay, except for the clogging, and 
better clay and soil with humus for nitrification than pure quartz 
sand. 

Carbide of iron, the forerunner of coke, was used previous 
to 1877. 

The American system of mechanical filtration was a pioneer 
system. Hurry is an American habit and this scheme forces 
water through sand after a treatment by aluminum hydrate, 
usually derived from alum. It has a great advantage of tak- 
ing up little room for the quantity of water delivered. It 
needs careful supervision lest too much reagent injure the 
quality of the effluent or too little permit an escape of too 
many bacteria. 

The effluent from a filter must be as clear as possible, and in 
color, taste, temperature, and chemical composition be not 
worse than before filtration. The sand must not yield anything 



FILTRATION 1 65 

to the water, and foul odors due to insufficient aeration must not 
be produced. As the size of the filters increases, this danger 
increases, especially with feed water impregnated with consider- 
able decomposable matter. With fairly good water there is 
usually oxygen enough to carry on the process. 

Ice-covered beds prevent oxidation and cause odors, not neces- 
sarily dangerous, but an indication of imperfect aeration and of 
reducing processes. 

The mechanical action is straining while the chemical action 
of the filter is oxidizing, for the most part by the aid of bacteria. 
The slowness with which the water moves and the even tem- 
perature give opportunity for the decay of the organic substance 
and the final production of harmless substances. Hence, there 
will be stages in which the number of bacteria will greatly in- 
crease, and, in turn, they must be filtered out before the effluent 
leaves the filter. The pressure must not be too great therefore. 
Nature's processes work slowly. 

Filtration of sewage will be referred to in Chapter XII. So 
far as the principles apply, the process requires more time 
between doses, because of richer food supply and more sludge 
accumulation even with previous sprinkling filter. More special 
modifications also are needed for special cases. The following 
questions are suggestions of points to be considered in the con- 
struction or criticism of filters. 

Slow Sand Filters 
Effective size of sand? 
Layers? 
Depth? 
Head? 

How cleaned? 
Color of water? 
Sediment in water? 
Quantity of water handled? 
Working periods of filters? 
Reduction in bacteria? 



1 66 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Costs: 

Installation? 

Operation? 

Renewals? 

Increase in tax rate? 
Cost per million gallons? 

Mechanical Filters 

Rate? 

Quantity of coagulant used? 

Is it necessary to add lime? 

Per cent reduction of bacteria? 

Effect of plankton. Is it a helpful variety? 

Mud? 

Time of subsidence? 

Cleaning, method? 

Costs : 

Installation? 

Operation? 

Renewals? 

Increase in tax rate? 
Cost per million gallons of purification? 

We have a ratio between speed, quantity, and required puri- 
fication governed first by quahty. The principle is the same, 
but details vary. 

Chemical action takes time and can be accomplished only in 
a filter sand carrying plenty of oxygen, that is, one in which the 
voids are 40 per cent of the whole space. 

Hurry filters such as Hyatt, Jewell, Warren, etc., gain time by 
omitting all real chemical action in the filter process, confining 
it to the reactions which produce the right kind of coagulant to 
enmesh the undesirable particles. Therefore soluble substances 
in the water for the most part go through after the coagulation 
unchanged. Thus a water previously high in free ammonia con- 
tinues so after this process, because this substance does not 



FILTRATION 



167 



enter into the changes; while calcium carbonate is lowered 
because it combines with the SO3 in the alum, etc. 

Example from Worcester, October, 1899 



Sewage 

Effluent 

Per cent removed by 

Filtration 

Sewage 

Effluent 

Per cent removed .... 



Albuminoid 
ammonia. 



57. 



91 



652 
277 

5 

373 

032 

7 



Dissolved. 



14 



82.8 



315 
.269 

6 

186 

032 



Suspended. 



•337 
.008 

97.6 
.187 
.000 
100.000 



Free 
ammonia. 



Oxygen con- 
sumed in filtered 
water 



1.777 
1.589 

10.4 
1 . 191 
1.279 
•74 



4.96 
3-71 

25.2 
2 .91 
I. 26 

56.7 



Among the many problems having a distinctly chemical basis, 
that of iron in the water is perhaps the most troublesome. Soil 
usually contains iron, both as sulphide or oxide derived from 
the slow decay of sulphide and as an organic compound. 
Chlorophyll, the basis of green vegetation, always carries iron, 
as does the blood of animals. The sulphide may give rise to 
soluble sulphate and thus enter the water, or the oxide may be 
dissolved and enter the water as carbonate chiefly, or as the 
original organic compound, yellow ''humic acid," which holds 
the ferric oxide in solution, as the young analyst finds to his 
dismay in the laboratory determination of ferric oxide. 

Water in percolating through the soils that are free from lime 
brings to the surface considerable quantities of iron, a most 
objectionable constituent for domestic use. 

If this is in the form of ferrous carbonate, aeration will permit 
the escape of the carbon dioxide, and sedimentation or filtration 
will remove the solid oxide, as at Far Rockaway, L. I., Red 
Bank and Asbury Park, N. J. If the iron is in combination 
with organic acids, filtration through marble chips or some other 
addition of alkaline reagent will break up the rather loose union 
and set the iron free. This has the disadvantage of greatly in- 
creasing the hardness of the water. Another way is to break up 
the organic matter. One way of securing this is by oxidation 
of the humic or carbohydrate compounds by potassium perman- 



l68 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

ganates; as in the laboratory test for organic matter. See Nichols, 
Water Supply, 1883, as used by English Army, also Report 
of the Mass. State Board of Health, 1899, P- 549- This was 
tested on Province^town water. Fifty to seventy-five pounds of 
potassium permanganate to 1,000,000 gallons in laboratory ex- 
periments proved efficient after three hours' aeration. 

At Reading, Mass., among other experiments that of a growth 
of crenothrix artificially cultivated has been tried. The plant 
takes the ammonia as food and probably the dissolved carbona- 
ceous matter, and sets free the iron, which then may be filtered 
out. 

The cure by the hair of the dog that bites is used to remove 
dissolved lime from water, namely, the addition of more lime to 
take up the dissolving agent, CO2; so with some forms of iron 
solution (the Anderson process in modification) , metallic iron is 
successful. 

The trouble sometimes increases as the water table is lowered 
and swampy places are drained into hitherto clear waters. 

If the soil receives additions of rich fertilizers or some acid 
trade wastes, the leaching of the iron increases, and not infre- 
quently ground water supplies have to be abandoned, such as 
wells 25 or 30 feet deep draining from low land. Such a case 
occurred at Watertown, Mass. 



CHAPTER XI 

II. THE ULTIMATE DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO 
CONTAMINATE WATER SUPPLIES 

Cremation, of garbage, animal waste. 

Dilution, by soil, by good water. 

Utilization, land absorption of water and nitrogen. 

The modern waterworks not only extends its feeders back 
into the momitains fifty to two hundred miles, lays pipe lines, 
estabhshes large storage reservoirs, and probably purification 
plants, but also installs a system of watershed inspection, in- 
tending to exclude that pollution of the soil now recognized as a 
dangerous factor. To maintain purity of soil both solid and liquid 
wastes must be disposed of effectively. This extension of the 
idea of prevention to include all waste disposal is one of the 
strongest arguments for municipal control and a unity of plan 
to be laid out and maintained only by engineering skill. 

City wastes, other than sewage proper carried in pipes, are 
(i) ashes, (2) metals, (3) glass, (4) rubbish of all sorts, — trim- 
mings of trees and shrubs, refuse of building, paper, and (5) dirty 
liquids carelessly thrown on the ground. 

The first four are a menace only as they may be vehicles for 
carrying the last. Ashes may be coated with foul Kquids, 
empty cans and glass may be breeding places for mosquitoes 
and other vermin. Rubbish heaps harbor rats and mice. The 
city dump is an unsanitary as well as an unsightly spot and 
should be abolished. Hand sorting of the freshly collected mate- 
rial under cover by trained workers whose hands and faces are 
properly protected would doubtless go far toward paying for 
collection if the householder did his part in original sorting. 
With the increased use of gas, ashes are being eliminated, but 
furnace ash still pays for screening. The disposal of the wastes 

169 



170 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

of human life in a manner at once satisfactory, innocuous, and 
economical is still a burning question. 

The completeness of the disposal of wastes of all kinds, used 
material of no value until the form is changed, marks the stage 
of civilization that a community has reached. It may be ob- 
jected that it is possible to be supersensitive ; that dead leaves 
and rotting wood are not as dangerous as a garbage heap or a 
dead carcass. Nevertheless we are finding influenza in the 
pretty litter of fallen leaves and carriers of disease in the insect- 
inhabited wood. 

The more deeply one probes into the byways of life, the more 
it appears true that the first law of sanitation is quick and 
complete disposal of all wastes. Complete disposal means a 
return to usefulness, to those forms which may begin again the 
cycle of value. 

The sanitarian, therefore, will endeavor to accomplish this 
result with as little offense as possible. Alas, to-day the hamper- 
ing clause is added, with as little cost as possible — without 
reference to the cost, in human life and health, of not doing it. 

Manufacturing wastes and city sewage carry much which does 
not belong to polluted water in the sense in which we have taken 
it. Cabbage leaves, butchers' paper, orange peel, banana skins, 
grease, soap, hair, hoofs and horns, matches, lint and rags, paper, 
cotton, wool, and what not, go into the city sewer. 

If the sewer empties in one place this soon becomes clogged. 
Constant raking and burying are needed; or, if artificially clari- 
fied, the '' sludge " is a burden, a terrible incubus on the works. 

Nature never has so much to handle in one spot. The refuse 
of one dishwashing or one Monday's wash lies on the surface and 
becomes inoffensive by drying and sun. Colonel Waring used 
nature's way, by exposing this gelatinous sludge to aeration and 
drying it to nothing. 

In some stage of civilization, when man began to be neighborly, 
so that his sink drain and cabbage patch began to be too close to 
his neighbor's windows and to offend his neighbor's nose, he de- 
vised a hole in the ground with loose walls and cover, a leaching 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 1 71 

cesspool, into which everything went — beef bones and corn 
husks. Usually this took care of itself and was no nuisance; 
here was neither air nor green plants, nor even nitrifying organ- 
isms, but the sort of enzymes which " rett " flax, which act 
on the buried leaves and overturned sod, the barnyard manure, 
etc., together with the ordinary putrefying bacteria, so that in 
time the solids all disappeared with the Kquids. Into the cess- 
pool came fresh portions of liquids day by day and hour by hour, 
and the effluent spread slowly into the earth and eventually 
found its way into the watercourses, for the most part below 
the nitrifying layer. Hence, Colonel Waring conceived the idea 
of having an elongated instead of a deepened tank, and so devised 
the subsurface drainage which goes by his name. A foot was 
rather deep and the time was not always sufflcient for solution,, 
so it has not been universally successful but is gaining favor. 

The cesspool is reappearing imder the name of the residential 
septic tank, and it is important to imderstand the reactions as 
far as possible, so as to foresee the consequences. 

The use of wells in a village after a town supply was put in 
was the straw which broke up the habit of universal use of cess- 
pools. The amoimt of water a family would pump was not so 
much as to oversaturate the ground of an ordinary village lot, 
but, given a tap with good pressure, the quantity rose so that 
the cesspool fed the well, which, because it was cold, was still 
used for drinking by one's self or his neighbors. 

We have reached a further stage now, so that wells are no 
longer tolerated in a viflage with water supply, and cesspools 
may come back if we are sure that somebody else is not going 
to suffer. 

Cremation 

A return to the sanitary practice of early times in the cremation 
of aU useless solid substances which are combustible is a doctrine 
to be promulgated among all intefligent peoples. 

A large proportion of city wastes might be thus disposed of 
if the citizens would cooperate, in ways at present non-existent 



172 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

or non-effective. Garbage is much larger in bulk than it need 
be or should be, because so much rotten fruit, uneatable vege- 
tables and unused meat, and general waste goes into the city 
receptacles. When furnaces and coal stoves are used each house- 
holder may lessen his quota, but with gas stoves and water or 
steam heat from a central plant the remedy for half the food 
waste is in the market, from which the refuse may be disposed 
of while it is fresh and not offensive. Most city waste is either 
innocent bottles, cans, bricks, mortar, ashes, etc., or combustibles, 
as paper, coal, sticks, grease, etc. 

The mechanical difficulties of cremation may be overcome 
just as soon as the sanitary importance of this disposal is 
conceded. 

Crematories in place of cemeteries will add to the safety of 
the living, and all sanitarians should unite in this effort to keep 
the soil clean; even the farmer will find profit in cremating 
instead of burying or leaving exposed many waste products. On 
a farm there is always enough woody refuse to burn the rest. 
The one exception, perhaps, may be dead leaves, cornstalks, etc., 
that form of mulch carrying organic carbon in combination with 
nitrogen in such form as to be available quite quickly for the 
next year's plant life. Such organic substances are usually free 
from disease germs, although in certain cases fungus epidemics 
havS to be stopped by burning all stalks and leaves. 

Many trade wastes could be improved by suitable screening 
as the stream leaves the plant and by a treatment for recovering 
grease for combustion of refuse. To-day many establishments 
attempt recovery only on a basis of commercial profit. In 
future, sanitary economy will be more largely considered on 
this line. There is a great field for reorganization of sentiment 
as well as of practice. The whole subject is in its infancy and 
is a promising field for the inventive engineer. 

Bottles and tins have some value. The enormous waste of 
paper should be separated at the house and for the most part 
collected by itself, but enough goes with the rubbish and garbage 
to furnish fuel for the cremation of the latter. 



DISPOS-\L OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 1 73 

All sanitary principles point to the cremation of decom- 
posable organic matter at once to save the soil and the sea from 
pollution. 

The establishment of the fact of the possible production of 
nitrates from that inexhaustible storehouse of nitrogen, the 
air, whether by plant nodules or by electricity, has taken away 
aU vahd objection to cremation of bodies or food wastes. The 
soil must be protected. This indiscriminate throwing of dirty 
Hquids into alleys and unpaved places in the city is now^ pro- 
hibited by ordinance, but the dwellers on the watershed are 
not so careful. 

This branch of conservation must be considerably extended 
and enlarged; hand in hand with it must go the education of the 
people. 

Rural sanitation for the protection of the watershed is a new 
branch and not yet developed. 

Dilution: ''Drains and sewers have been in use for thousands 
of years, but it is only within the present century that they have 
been made carriers of excrement. Their use, however, for this 
purpose has increased of late in all civilized countries; and it 
seems probable that this will soon be the universal method 
employed in cities and crowded towns. We have already re- 
ferred to some of its manifest advantages. The saving of labor 
is one which must specially commend it to all American com- 
munities. It is almost automatic in its operation. It sweeps 
away from our sight the most offensive things. It is capable of 
entirely reheving a city or town of the presence of such foul 
collections of putridity as are always disclosed in an ordinary 
privy vault. When a great fire destroys the houses and un- 
covers the earth in an old town, we can see how numerous and 
how vile are these places. Would not everybody desire to have 
such filth removed and the site of the town thoroughly aired 
and purified before the houses were rebuilt? " ^ 

This most common waste, sewage as it flows away from 
cities, is not merely 75 per cent water as an animal carcass is, 

^ Fourth Massachusetts Report, 1873. 



174 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

not 90 per cent as vegetable garbage tests show, but 99.8 per 
cent of water. It is already so dilute that the addition of more 
water seems the natural order of disposal. Most streams 
receive only 20 parts in a million of polluting material, the 
resulting mixture giving frequently no indication to taste, smell, 
or laboratory tests of its character. It was only when the 
bacterial count became possible and one cubic centimeter of 
the water showed fifty to five hundred million colonies that 
men's imagination began to be affected. This " scare head " 
was so effectual that now it is difficult to convince some people 
that all of the millions are not deadly. 

Dilution decreases the risk not merely in proportion to the 
dilution but after the discharge into cold media, the pathogenic 
germs are exposed to sunlight and to the destructive action of 
hosts of hostile organisms, protozoa, etc. The greater part suc- 
cumb and the few left are in effect distributed over a million 
times more water. Some such theory explains the general im- 
munity from disease following dilution of polluted water, but this 
immunity is rudely interrupted by any unusual disturbance. 

Dr. Charles Ferguson, city sanitarian of Indianapolis, re- 
cently reported that the water supply showed signs of fecal 
contamination and that a very large proportion of the 45 suf- 
ferers from typhoid fever during the year were either directly 
or indirectly users of city water. As the water supply of 
IndianapoHs has been considered exceptionally good, Dr. 
Ferguson's report created some comment, until an investigation 
by the county health officer developed the fact that a small 
village about six miles above the Indianapolis intake had under- 
taken a wholesale cleaning of its privy vaults and that the 
contractor had dumped the contents of these into or along 
the river. 

The many cases on record like the college epidemics in New 
Haven and Ithaca, the Cambridge case of Italian laborers, the 
famous Chelmsford patient who in one day started typhoid in 
three cities and did a service to sanitation in putting the final 
weapon in Mr. Hiram F. Mills's hand for the Lawrence filter, — 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONT.\]VIINATE 175 

all go to show that dilution cannot be relied on as a final 
disposal in all circumstances. 

The case of wells and springs is even worse, for although the 
water is colder, the absence of combating organisms gives freer 
play. The well contaminated by a freshet with melting snow 
giving thirty cases of typhoid is an instance which might be 
multiplied. 

In a way the dilution is advantageous, as it allows the chemical 
and biological processes to go on freely. There has been less 
danger from water carriage than from cesspools, but the garbage 
and increased trade wastes which the sewers are made to carry 
under conditions of modern luxury, as well as the denser popu- 
lation, makes the problem a somewhat difficult one. 

The subject of the self-purification of rivers admits of being 
considered from two perfectly distinct points of view, as, indeed, 
do almost all other questions relating to the purity of water, viz., 
the chemical and the biological aspect. 

Until recently the subject has been discussed only from a 
chemical point of view, in consequence of the impossibility which 
formerly existed of obtaining any precise or accurate information 
on such matters of biology. 

All engineers are acquainted with streams which are visibly 
polluted at one spot and apparently pure a few miles lower down. 
When such cases are further submitted to analytical tests, the 
latter, of course, fully confirm the previous ocular impressions. 
In fact, that such disappearance of organic matter does take 
place is beyond a shadow of a doubt, and it is mere waste of time 
to contest it. A bagful of feathers shaken into the air at one 
spot would similarly be imperceptible a few hundred yards away. 
That the polluting matter has been destroyed, however, in the 
course of a few miles' flow is almost as improbable as that the 
feathers should have been decomposed in their short flight 
through the air. In fact, when these cases of supposed self- 
purification come to be carefully investigated, it becomes very 
doubtful as to whether the phenomenon is due to anything 
beyond dilution and sedimentation. 



176 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 





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water until it mingles with the Mississippi, whose great volume 
has absorbed the drainage of twenty cities, and with the great 
Missouri, a fouler stream, but so muddy that the sedimentation 
is a powerful purifying agent. 



DISPOS-\L OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 1 79 

Dilution is a great safeguard and so long as it is a million to 
one, will as a rule — to which there will always be exceptions 
— answer. 

Dilution as well as soil filtration — general seepage and per- 
colation of small wastes, farmyards, factories, gas washers — 
are helpful. 

" Much inconvenience and ill health caused by impurities in 
the drinking water originate primarily from the ahmentary 
tract, and are due to gastric and intestinal disturbances. The 
ingestion of contaminating materials may be a cause of dys- 
pepsia or diarrhea, and probably also renders the system recep- 
tive to the invasion of the bacillus coli, the bacillus of Shiga, 
and other pathogenic organisms, and this quite independently 
of any pollution of the drinking water by the disease-producing 
germs themselves."^ 

Contaminated waters are not necessarily dangerous at the mo- 
ment or ever, but bear the marks of previous pollution. They 
are suspected and the expert must determine the source and 
character of this previous pollution before he can be sure if 
it is safe to go on using them. Most cases of domestic wells 
come under this head. 

Water cannot be restored to its pristine purity. It can only 
be cleansed so as to be passable and not dangerous. 

The Psychological effect of appearance is worth much — be- 
cause of tradition. • 

Science not infrequently meets a setback from a well of obtuse- 
ness due to inherited ideas. The English Commission furnishes 
instructive history — as the following extracts show. 

Instructions to the Commissioners 
Gentlemen: Whiteil^ll, May 30, 1865. 

Her Majesty having been pleased to appoint you to be Com- 
missioners for Inquiry into the Pollution of Rivers, I am di- 
rected by Secretary Sir George Grey to send you the following 
instructions for your guidance in the proposed inquiry. 
1 American Medicine, March 29, 1902. 



l8o CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Although it may be taken as proved generally that there 
is a widespread and serious pollution of rivers both from town 
sewage and the refuse of mines and manufactories, and that town 
sewage may be turned to profitable account as a manure, there is 
not sufhcient evidence to show that any measure absolutely 
prohibiting the discharge of such refuse into rivers, or absolutely 
compelling town authorities to carry it on the lands, might not 
be remedying one evil at the cost of an evil still more serious, 
in the shape of injury to health and damage to manufactures. 
It is, therefore, suggested that your inquiry should include se- 
lected river basins, illustrating different classes of employment 
and population; that these river basins might be: 

First. The Thames Valley — both as an example of an agri- 
cultural river basin, with many navigation works, such as locks 
and weirs and mills affecting the flow of water, and many towns 
and some manufactories discharging their sewage and refuse 
into the stream from which is mainly derived the water supply 
of the metropolis. 

Second. The Mersey Valley — including its feeders, particu- 
larly the Irwell, as an example of the river basin most exten- 
sively polluted by all forms of manufacturing refuse, particularly 
that arising from the cotton manufacture and processes con- 
nected therewith. 

Third. The Aire and Calder Basin, as an additional example 
of the same class, particularly in connection with the woolen 
and iron manufactories. 

Fourth. The Severn Basin, for the same reason, but in particu- 
lar connection with the great seats of the iron trade. 

Fifth. The Taff Valley, in connection with mining and in- 
dustry applied to metals. 

Sixth. A river basin comprising a mining district in Cornwall. 

Your special points of inquiry should, it is conceived, be in 
the Thames Valley, (i) The condition of the river as affected 
by mills, weirs, and locks, and as affecting the drainage of towns 
and villages and adjacent lands. (2) The condition of the river, 
as affected both by the drainage of sewage from towns and 



DISPOS.\L OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE l8l 

villages, and the refuse of manufactories, paper mills, etc., and 
the possibility of intercepting and rendering useful or innocuous 
these sources of pollution. 

As to the other rivers mentioned, the main object of the in- 
quiry should be how far the use or abuse of the rivers is, under 
present circumstances, essential to the carrying on the industry 
of these districts, how far by new arrangements the refuse 
arising from industrial processes in these districts can be kept 
out of the streams, or rendered harmless before it reaches them, 
or utilized or got rid of otherwise than by discharge into running 
waters. In the course of these investigations you will make 
inquiry into the effect on health and comfort of the existing 
system of sewage of towns and populous places in the districts 
examined, and into the best mode of protecting individual and 
public interests in the purity of running water. 

Secondary questions will, no doubt, arise contingent on these 
leading points, in which case you will include them, as far as it 
is necessary, within the scope of your inquiry. 

I am, etc., 

(Signed) H. Waddington. 
R. Rawlinson, Esq., 
J. T. Harrison, Esq., 
J. T. Way, Esq., 

Commissioners to inquire into the Pollution of Rivers. 

Recommendations 

We also humbly submit the following Recommendations to 
Your Majesty: 

That the whole river be placed under the superintendence of 
one governing body. 

That this body be the existing Conservancy Board, provided 
that the Board receive an addition of an adequate number of 
representatives of the local interests of the Upper Thames; and 
such representatives to be elected by the persons who now con- 
stitute the Thames Commissioners. 



l82 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

That, after the lapse of a period to be allowed for the altera- 
tion of existing arrangements, it be made unlawful for any 
Sewage, unless the same has been passed over land so as to 
become purified, or for any injurious refuse from paper-mills, 
tanneries, and other works, to be cast into the Thames between 
Cricklade and the commencement of the Metropolitan sewerage 
system, and that any person offending in this respect be made 
liable to penalties to be recovered summarily. 

That it be made incumbent upon the Conservators to see to 
the enforcement of the above prohibitions against pollution of 
the river, and that for this purpose power be given to them to 
visit and inspect works and, after due notice, to close the outlets 
of sewers, drains, and discharge-pipes into the river within the 
limits described in the last preceding recommendation. 

That, subject to proper safeguards to prevent abuse, powers be 
given to local authorities to take land compulsorily for the pur- 
pose of sewage irrigation, to an extent not exceeding one acre for 
every fifty persons whose sewage is to be applied. 

That the Upper Navigation from Lechlade to Staines be put 
into good working order, and so maintained. 

That the rights of private persons to take tolls at locks no 
longer used for the navigation be abolished, and that the property 
in all weirs on the Thames now belonging to private persons, 
together with the liability to maintain the same weirs, be trans- 
ferred to the Conservators. 

That all fishing rights which interfere with the level or free 
flow of the river be abolished, with such compensation as may 
be settled by Parliament. 

That the Conservators be empowered to levy upon all Water- 
works, taking water for domestic or trade purposes from the 
River Thames, a rental in proportion to the volume abstracted; 
the maximum of such rental to be named by ParHament. 

That the Conservators be empowered to borrow the necessary 
money for the restoration and maintenance of the Upper Thames. 
That in order to provide adequate security for money so to be 
borrowed, the Conservators be authorized to give a first charge 



DISPOS.\L OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 183 

upon the future revenue of the Upper Navigation to the post- 
ponement of the existing bonds, and to pledge, as collateral 
securities, the rental above mentioned upon the Waterworks and 
also the revenue of the Lower Navigation. 

That upon the aforesaid security the Public Works Loan Com- 
missioners be authorized to make advances to the Conservators. 

That powers be given to the Conservators to compound with 
the holders of existing bonds on the Upper Navigation. 

That powers be given to the Conservators to make Embank- 
ments throughout the valley of the Thames, and carry out arte- 
rial drainage operations, the cost of such improvements to be 
met by a tax upon the properties so improved. 

All which we humbly certify to Your Majesty, under our 
hands and seals. 

(Signed) 

Robert Rawlinson. 

John Thornhill Harrison. 

J. Thomas Way. 



Godfrey Lushington, 
March 29, 1866.^ 



Secretary. 



From a chemical standpoint, any discussion of pure water, 
or of water of sufficient purity to be used for a town supply, 
almost of necessity involves, first, a discussion of the pollution 
to which water is liable and the means of prevention of such 
pollution. 

The most immediately dangerous wastes of human life, as is 
conceded by present-day sanitary theory, are those included in 
the term sewage. '' Straight," or domestic, sewage, the outflow 
of sink, laundry tub, bath tub, and water-closet is a water carry- 
ing only about i per cent of extraneous matter, but many mil- 
lions of bacteria, some of them probably harmful along with 
products of decomposition that may be deleterious. At least, 

^ From First Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into The Best 
Means of Preventing the Pollution of Rivers (River Thames), Vol. I, pages 4 and 
32-33- 



1 84 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

having passed through the body once, they are not desirable for 
a second drinking. 

On the 6th of April, 1872, the State Board of Health of Massa- 
chusetts was instructed by an order of the legislature to collect 
information concerning sewage and the possibility of utilizing 
it; the pollution of streams and the water supply of towns, and 
to make report at the next session. Dr. Henry I. Bow.ditch, 
the Chairman of the Board, writes in the next year: " There is 
no single subject that is attracting more attention in England, 
and which excites more heated partisanship, than the vast 
question looming up under the various names of ' earth-closet,' 
' water-closet,' ' sewage,' ' its dangers to health,' ^ its utiliza- 
tion as a manure,' etc. In other words, the great sanitary 
question of the day, throughout Great Britain, is the economic 
removal from houses of what is deleterious to man and the 
proper use, as a source of income, of what has been heretofore 
wholly wasted." ^ 

He goes on to describe the excitement caused by these dis- 
cussions at the meeting of the British Association of that year, 
at Liverpool, under the presidency of Huxley, and remarks 
that " they had to be repressed in the various sections." Also, 
'^ The chemist kept the discussion simply to the chemical aspects 
of the question, and all engineering or simply sanitary ideas 
were sedulously kept away. They had, strictly speaking, no 
right in the laboratory." His description of the "partisan 
violence " and the " language worthy of Billingsgate " which he 
heard on this occasion is very amusing. However much sani- 
tarians differ to-day they do not vilify each other to such an 
extent. 

Only farmhouses, country estates, and institutions furnish 
the simple problem of domestic sewage disposal. All factory 
villages, towns, and cities add another or several other ele- 
ments in the shape of what are technically known as' trade 
wastes; that is, water used in washing wool, acid pickling 
liquor for iron, paper-mill and silk-mill washing water, wastes 
^Second Report, 1871, p. 233. 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 1 85 

from gas works, and a thousand other industries each adding its 
quota to a modern city sewage and increasing one hundredfold 
the difficulty of treatment. City sewage is this mixed liquid 
with its J per cent of house sewage and i or more per cent 
of trade wastes. There is borne along by the water at times 
considerable solid material which should be screened out by 
somewhat finer screens than those commonly used and the col- 
lection burned. 

The disposal of the remaining liquid is the great sanitary 
problem of the day, not merely for the present but for the 
future protection of the soil and the sea. 

A study of any tables of sewage analysis will show that, in 
America at least, the flow is one of dirty water only, carrying 
putrescible organic matter to a less extent, as a rule, than it 
carries products already in a state of decomposition as indi- 
cated by both the chemical results and the bacterial count. 

Thus a sewage carries 100 to 200 parts per million of com- 
bustible organic substances, of which albuminoid ammonia is 
5 to 10 parts, free ammonia 15 to 30 parts, while the chlorine 
also is 5 to 10 parts. 

The activity of the changes is indicated by the large number 
of bacteria, one to two million per cubic centimeter being com- 
mon. If these were all pathogenic bacteria, the test would be 
easy, but most of them are simple scavengers doing their work 
like orderly citizens. They work on carbonaceous as well as 
nitrogenous matter, but the decomposition of the latter is held 
to give rise to the more objectionable feature. 

Sewage carries both soluble and insoluble substances. A 
portion of the insoluble may become soluble through decom- 
position in a few hours, while the rest is of more permanent 
character. It is usually held to be sufficient to secure the 
decomposition of the ready material and the removal of the 
rest by sedimentation or straining. 

This decomposition may be materially hastened by a tem- 
perature favorable to the growth of the agents, i.e. incubation. 

The removal of the insoluble may be hastened by straining, 



1 86 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

and this may be facilitated by coagulation, which acts like a 
fine drag-net to collect and hold together the suspended par- 
ticles which are to be disposed of. 

Purification of this dirty water means, therefore, the removal 
of the contamination or conversion of possibly dangerous into 
harmless substances. 

Removal of substances in suspension in any liquid may be 
accomplished by filtration through mediums sufficiently imper- 
vious. Any substances which can be made insoluble by chemical 
interchange may be removed, but other substances are usually 
left in solution to replace those taken out. 

The permanently soluble substances may be changed into 
others by various processes. Thus sugar, by the process of 
fermentation, may be decomposed into alcohol and carbon 
dioxide, the alcohol into water and carbon dioxide. 

If a manufacturer should come to a carpenter's office and ask 
to have a tank of certain dimensions built for him and should 
specify just a wooden tank, no matter what it is to be used for, the 
carpenter would be put in a dilemma approaching that which con- 
fronts the chemical or sanitary engineer when he is asked to plan 
a treatment for sewage — just sewage. As there are loo kinds 
of woods on the market, all varying in resistance to decay, to 
acids, etc., so there are a thousand varieties of sewage (dirty 
water), and no two alike, especially in America, where so diverse 
habits and conditions rule. 

The chemist has been very meek and has allowed himself to be 
browbeaten into pacifying the public demand with barren results 
for the most part. Instead of studying one problem at one place 
(which was the secret of the success at Lawrence) each new com- 
mission sent a man to Europe to see how the problem was solved 
there, but he came home more muddled than enlightened because 
he did not go back of the sewage to the elements, especially 
to the water used in the original supply. 

The so-called putrescibility tests serve to distinguish between 
the most unstable agents of decomposition. The plants or 
enzymes that attack cellulose and woody tissues require differ- 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LLABLE TO CONTAMINATE 187 

ent conditions for work from those that break up unstable nitrog- 
enous substances; hence, real purification goes on in stages, the 
cleavage indicated in the reactions as taking place with little 
oxygen in the presence of water. 

Oxidation follows, with eHmination of odors, and slow '' retting,'^ 
as in the case of flax, goes on wherever the soHds may be, — in the 
interstices of the filter, or on the side or bottom of the stream, 
or in the soil of the filter bed. 

There is no mystery about it. The work in each case is a 
balancing of many factors; the trouble is that the operator may 
not have all the facts at hand. The smaller the purification 
plant the more effect, if all the housewives chance to wash their 
blankets the same day or the bakeries get a lot of bad bread 
sponge and send it down the sewer. Yeast is a constant in city 
sewage. 

In a large city there is less variation. Treatment to avoid 
nuisance may be made to run very regularly, but slack water will 
occur downstream, and the works must expect to watch for times 
of trouble. 

If the treatment is on land, there must be no miniature settling 
basins at the outflow where the slowly changing solid particles 
may set up unpleasant fermentations. It is in little points like 
these that care is needed to obviate prejudice against sewage 
treatment. 

In the case of hospital sewage and in times of epidemic when 
many disinfectants are used some trouble may be experienced, 
some interference with regular working. It is probable that 
most of these can be overcome by dilution, but an extra inter- 
cepting tank may be put into commission for a time and the 
soHd contents passed through fire. This would be a profitable 
sanitary measure. 

For details see Reports of Experts and current literature. In 
so active a topic any special process is out of date before the 
ink describing it is dry. 

In common law each owner of land is held to own certain 
property rights to any water flowing through his land. He may 



1 88 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

use the water in any manner and for any purpose he chooses, 
providing he does not so alter its quahty or decrease its quantity 
as to damage the interests of the man lower down the stream, a 
man with similar rights. 

An appeal to the right of eminent domain has of late years, 
since the rise of large cities, been successfully made. Some 
decisions are in direct contradiction, since rights are taken from 
the few for the benefit of thousands. 

Statutory law covering water rights is usually based upon 
the premise of nuisance, although in some states the sanitary 
interests of the people downstream are made the basis .^ 

It is usually held that underground water goes with the soil, 
and that rights may be bought and sold; that even if a neighbor's 
supply is cut off he has no redress unless it was so nominated in 
the bond; but, on the other hand, a man's neighbor is not per- 
mitted to place anything on his own land which by percolation 
shall injure the potability of the other man's well. 

For a compilation of decisions in common law and of the 
state statutes, see U. S. Geol. Survey, Water-Supply and 
Irrigation, Paper No. 103, 1904. For later records of many 
decisions of eminent jurists, see files of engineering publications. 
More than half the states now have some legal basis for water 
users. 

The Blacks tone River and its tributaries offer one of the 
best examples of improvement of streams by dilution and sedi- 
mentation. 

The accompanying sketch map with the drainage areas much 
compressed, but in relative position, taken together with the 
table of analyses, shows the influence of mixture of waters. 

In 1872 the State Board of Health reported, " The day may 
not be in very remote future when the legitimate use of the 
river in manufacturing operations may call for an injunction 
upon its use as a carrier of sewage." It was then suggested 
that the city of Worcester should attempt land treatment. It 

^ Page 199, Montana River pollution law. Untreated sewage cannot be dis- 
charged into Yellowstone River within four miles of a potable water intake. 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 



would however require looo acres at a rate of 3300 persons to the 
acre and the estimated value was only .861 of a cent per ton. 



MAP OF blacksto:ne valley. 



W.-=Worcester 
C.= River below W^ 
§.iJ.=Quinsigamone 
River 

/ Jir.U.=Mumford R. 

I W.E. =-W est R. 

I U.=Uxbridge 

I My.=ilillbury 
F.^Earnumsville 
MilL^MlliviUe 




Until about 1890 the river water at Blackstone was readily 
drunk by horses, and the stablemen noticed Httle change 



I go CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

except in the very dry year of 1871, when the horses refused to 
drink. 

In 1886 the Legislature directed the city to purify its sewage 
before discharging it into the river. This they began to do in 
1890, by treating a portion with chemicals. 

In 1 89 1 the State Board of Health made a series of tests to 
determine the extent of the purification. The results are given 
in the table. Only about 50 per cent of the organic matter was 
removed and the results were not satisfactory. The problem 
was made more difficult by the rapid increase of the city in 
both population and manufacturing establishments so that the 
precipitation works were outgrown as soon as built. Not until 
land treatment was added to the plant did anything like a 
satisfactory condition of the river in its lower reaches exist 
because the organic matter was continually carried farther and 
farther down the stream and the precipitated sludge which 
accumulated was liable to be disturbed and cause nuisance. 
The forty years' experience on the problem of sewage disposal 
of a growing city into a small inland stream is very instructive 
and well worth a careful study. 

Haste in introducing new schemes without full knowledge of 
previous results sometimes leads to needless expense in rectifying 
mistakes. 

The modern method of moving this waste from house to 
stream is by the use of abundant water, so that the resulting 
liquid contains about .5 per cent of substance other than water. 

In one way it is this very dilution, which allows the chemical 
processes to go on freely, which has saved us so far, for there 
has heretofore been less danger from water carriage than from 
cesspools. But now the danger is increasing, due to the greater 
luxury of life, the loading of the sewers with garbage, etc., and 
the denser population. 

Therefore, the scientific interest in this side of the question is 
largely centered on the purification of this dirty water, and the 
economical interest in the utilization of the valuable material 
now going for the most part into the sea. 



DISPOS.\L OF WASTES LL\BLE TO COXT.\:^IIXATE 



191 





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II 



192 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

This represents a value of possibly $2 an individual a year, 
or for a town of 30,000, some $60,000. 

What is it, then, that we wish to get rid of before we allow 
this fluid to go into the streams? 

First. Insoluble matter, earthy material from the soil and 
streets, fragments of cotton, woody fiber, leather, and debris 
of life generally. This can be taken out by various means: 
{a) by sedimentation; this class of matter largely subsides if left 
to itself, but it takes too long; {h) by rough filtration, or screen- 
ing, but besides the greasiness, the filter or screen has a tendency 
to clog lip, due to the growth of organisms. A thick felt, like 
mother of vinegar, soon clogs up the spaces, and all such filters 
and screens need close attention. If they can be left to them- 
selves to dry in the air ^ this will disappear and the filter can 
be used again. This takes room and time, and we wish to 
get rid of these things as soon as possible, so we add something 
which will form a clot at once. 

Alum, which gives up its sulphuric acid to the other miner- 
als, liberates a gelatinous mass which entangles all suspended 
matter, clay, bacteria, etc., and gives a clean, brilliant filtrate. 
Expense is one objection; the addition of so much sulphuric 
acid to water which may be needed for boilers and other manu- 
facturing purposes is another. Alum is valuable in that it does 
take out and hold some of the ammonia, providing it is used 
without lime or soda. 

Caustic lime unites with the carbonic acid and precipitates out. 
Lime always increases the odor and ammonia and makes a most 
objectionable filtrate. Even just lime enough to neutralize the 
liberated acid from alum and to precipitate the aluminum hy- 
drate is objectionable for boilers. The ABC method, using 
alum, blood, clay, and charcoal, proposed about 1870, was one of 
the earHest attempts at purification. 

Intermittent, downward filtration was even then considered 
as the best process, and an opinion was given that this would 
be the best plan for Worcester. 

1 Waring, Newport Experiment above. 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 



193 



Neither from an engineering nor from a sanitary standpoint 
does it seem necessary to spend much time discussing chemical 
purification of sewage, since we know no practical means of 



Nashua River 





Lake "Winnipesogee 
North Brancli of the 
Nashua River on which 
are Fitchbtirg and 
Leominster. 



South Branch of the I 1 « 

Nashua River into ) 2 a 

which the drainage ) 3 a 

of Clinton flows . \5a 



Nashua River at 
Nashua. 



Merrimack at Nashua 7 
" Lowells 
" " Lawrence 9 

i« » Haverhill 10 



rendering insoluble the ammonia, the chlorine, the nitrites, 
or the nitrates, and therefore we will leave that to the future 
chemist. 

The possibility of taking nature's way of purification is 
admirably illustrated at Lawrence and at Framingham. The 



194 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



chemical side is very simple. Given the living organism, and 
the right amount of air and food, the operation is complete, 
but like all life processes, there is danger of over-feeding and 
under-aeration ; one of the chief troubles with human beings. 
The manipulation requires the engineer as well as the chemist, 
or better, the engineer-chemist. Therefore the more carefully 
the methods and the principles illustrated in these fields are 
studied the better. 

Illustration of Pollution and Purification of Streams 
Average for 1887, 1888, and 1889 









Albuminoid 












Color. 


Total 
solids. 


ammonia. 


Free 
ammonia. 


Nitrites. 


Nitrates. Ch 


lorine. 


Total. 


In solution. 





O.I 


2.12 


.0092 


• 0085 


.0003 


.0000 


.0038 


12 


I 


0.40 
0. 10 


3 
6 


55 
65 
09 


.0168 






.0016 


.0002 


.0070 
.0050 
.0125 


17 

39 
83 


2 


.0168 






.0004 
.0326 


.0001 


3 


1. 00 


10 


.0580 




0419 


.0014 


4 

5 


0.60 
0.56 


8 

7 


50 
47 


.0340 
.0287 




0257 
0261 


.0243 
.0118 


.0014 
.0002 


.0125 
.0251 


76 

72 


ifl 


0.15 


3 


95 


.0202 




0138 


.0020 


.0003 


.0070 


28 


2a 
3« 
5^^ 


0.20 
0.29 
0.20 


3 
9 
4 


87 
75 
91 


.0188 
.0659 
.0230 




0147 
0187 
0173 


.0013 

•1955 
.0264 


.0003 
.0083 
.ockdS 


.0075 
.0190 
.0192 


30 
98 
38 


N. 


0.50 


3 


95 


.0120 




0108 


.0000 


.0001 


.0030 


17 


6 


0.50 


5 


50 


.0300 




0254 


.0096 


.0007 


.0120 


40 


7 
8 


0.34 
0.32 


5 
5 


01 
40 


•0153 
.0171 




0131 
0128 


.0014 
.0014 


.0002 
.0002 


.0074 
.0078 


15 
16 


9 


0.33 


4 


75 


.0180 




0139 


.0023 


.0003 


.0091 


18 


10 


0.34 


5-99 


.0201 


.0158 


.0025 


.0003 


.0094 


19 



Nashua River. (See Map.) 

It is of consequence at this stage of our inquiry to examine 
the claims that there is no need of all this trouble and expense; 
that the flowing river or stream purifies itself in a few miles, and 
that this is manifestly nature's way of getting rid of objec- 
tionable matter. 

One of the best pieces of work done in the way of investi- 
gating dilutions as to time and flow, was the investigation of the 
branches of the Nashua River in 1891, October 12-15. The 
sketch and figures are shown. Unfortunately, rain interfered 
with further work and there are gaps. 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LL\BLE TO CONTAMINATE 195 

Volume of the Merrimac at Nashua is forty times the Nashua. 
Velocity, 86 cu. feet per second, N. Branch. 
55 cu. feet per second, S. Branch. 

Tributaries add about 150 feet per second at Nashua. 
The Merrimac yields 6000 feet per second at Lowell. 

As is natural in a manufacturing region where soda ash, alum, 
sulphuric acid, etc., are so largely used, the total solids increase 
more than the chlorine, which comes largely from population, 
and such is the effect of coagulation and precipitation that they 
are really less at Lawrence. 

Examine the two indications of recent pollution, ammonia 
and nitrites, i, 2, la and 2a are very low in both, while 3, 4 
and 3a are very high in both; 5 and 5a both show the effect 
of pollution more than any other. Compare them with 2, for 
instance, which has more chlorine than 5a, and with 2a, which 
has nearly as much. 

And now comes the crucial test. Can one tell at 6 if there 
has been pollution after these many tributaries of comparatively 
good water have mingled and after the many miles of flow? 

Number 6 will bear a critical study, for we see here the relative 
value of the tests for nitrites and ammonia. Both indicate, 
without question, contamination with chlorine far above normal. 
The total albuminoid ammonia is higher than in the contribut- 
ing streams, colored water coming in and suspended matters 
being carried along. 

The problem of waste is quite as serious in water supply as in 
other things. Like all organic wastes liable to putrefaction, 
water-borne wastes are hastened beyond reach by as great a 
flow as possible. If each town or city was a question by itself, 
there would be as little sanitary problem as there was when 
the savage moved his tent, or the early settler dwelt alone. 

To-day there is always some one below, beyond, another city 
to be considered, other interests to be adjusted. This is one of 
the places where the kind of social sense of the sanitary engineer 
spoken of on page 290 comes to the front. The larger problem 



196 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

of the number of communities affected must come into the 
discussion of any one community's needs. 

A large part of water trouble has come into existence since 
water carriage of house and city wastes. 

The wastes are quickly taken from the place of origin, but 
are only too often distributed over a wide area and allowed to 
become offensive as well as dangerous. 

To-day the problem is the bringing state and federal law 
into action to prevent selfish interests from interfering with the 
rights of others. 

Standards for discharge in potable waters must include organic 
matter as food as well as present vegetable bacteria. No practi- 
cable treatment pretends to remove all the spores. 

For immediate use this does not particularly matter, but 
for traveling a distance and for mingling with other waters these 
latent organisms have to be dealt with. 

For this reason, simple filtration fails and sterilization is 
resorted to. These bodies are very resistent, however, as the 
preservation of the species demands, and the process of com- 
plete sterilization is an expensive one. 

So that it is economically indicated that wastes be kept out 
of potable waters, or at least that they be forced to undergo 
the long, slow treatment where time takes the place of elaborate 
machinery. 

Some of the most vital conservation problems are right 
here. The disposal of wastes without nuisance is a possibility, 
but also an expense, much of which is to be overcome by 
engineering skill. Some chemical problems are to be worked 
out in each case, but the methods of handling are of great 
importance. 

The largest problems of the immediate future are those of 
the large cities on the seashore. While they were small and the 
volume per capita moderate, it went without saying that the 
ocean was the place for their wastes; but to-day they are a 
serious menace to all the shores — a nuisance, if not a menace, 
to health. 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 197 

A city like New York must undoubtedly treat its wastes. The 
sands of Long Island offer opportunities, if utilized soon. 
The sands of Cape Cod lie ready for Boston's wastes. 

Utilization 

That man who thinks at all, who is a student and an observer, 
is at heart an economist. He believes, knows, that there is 
only so much material of a certain sort available on the earth, 
under the earth, over the earth, and he beHeves, if he thinks at 
all, that man's brain and inventive power have a duty in making 
the most of these materials. In so many directions wastes have 
proved immensely profitable when recovered that it is quite 
en rapport that the value of wastes, of human activity, should 
have been closely calculated, and now that intensive farming 
is talked of and beginning to be practiced, the utilization of all 
this water as water obtained at such cost comes into view with 
greater force than when the nitrogen value only was considered. 
All sanitarians have agreed that utilization is desirable, but 
few have been willing to say that it is practicable. A few 
opinions are interesting to show the progress of the sanitary idea. 

'' The utilization or ' heworthing ' of waste material of every 
sort is of equal interest to the political economist and to the 
sanitarian. To one it is a direct saving of money; to the other 
a saving of health and of life, both of which have a true money 
value. 

''We must never despair of success in the search for the 
means of converting our waste into useful and harmless pro- 
ducts, however great may be the difficulties in the way. 

'' Obstacles which now seem well-nigh insuperable may be ex- 
pected to become less formidable and at last to disappear 
before the advance of science and of skill. It is no exaggeration 
to say that this problem of the conversion of the excremental 
waste of towns and people, and the refuse of factories, into 
useful materials, is now engaging as much of the attention of 
intelligent minds throughout the world as any social question. 



198 CONSERVxVTION BY SANITATION 

'' Sewage irrigation *is no novelty. In Italy, in the neighbor- 
hood of Milan, sewage has long been used for purposes of irri- 
gation, and the Craigentinny meadows, in the neighborhood of 
Edinburgh, have been treated with sewage for many years. At 
Milan the liquid refuse of the city is collected in large sewers 
which join one another and meet in a canal called the ' Vettab- 
bia.' This is made to ramify and serve for the irrigation of 
about four thousand acres of land, after which it falls into the 
river Lambro, about ten miles below the city. The amount of 
sewage supplied to the land is at about the rate of the liquid 
refuse of forty persons to the acre. The land irrigated with 
sewage is devoted mainly to the cultivation of grass, and the 
crops are superior to those raised upon neighboring lands which 
are irrigated with water simply." ^ 

Although eastern nations far back in history made use of 
wastes in the cultivation of crops, the English-speaking peoples, 
from a variety of causes, partly psychological, seem to have 
been prejudiced against such use. 

In the revival of altruism which has been noticed (Chap. V), 
the students of waste disposal spoke in no uncertain terms of 
the use of the land as the logical and scientific measure. 

But in England the introduction of water carriage and the 
attempt to utilize the waste water in land cultivation failed 
for two chief reasons — too much return was expected, and the 
soil tried was most unsuitable. In America a Puritan prudery, 
together with the ease with which running water could be 
made serviceable, kept the experiments in the background. 
If there was no profit in sewage farming why undertake it — at 
least until forced to do so. The early students in Massachu- 
setts spoke with no uncertain sound. In the chemical experi- 
ments of the Massachusetts Board of Health at Lawrence, the 
firm belief of Mr. Hiram F. Mills that Nature's processes were 
worthy of imitation led to the practical application of principles 
of purification which showed why the English failed and what 

1 From Fourth Annual Report, Massachusetts State Board of Health, January^ 
1873, " Sewerage; Sewage; The Pollution of Streams; The Water Supply of Towns." 



DISPOS.AJL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 199 

were the elements of success. They only pointed the way, 
however. Few trials have been made, and those mostly unsuc- 
cessful. The cities of Paris and BerHn partly use the sewage 
on cultivated lands, but they are not recovering more than half 
the value. 

In an address quoted in Science, August i, 1902, by a distin- 
guished chemist, occurs th s statement: ''Sewage farming and 
chemical treatment are now considered as methods of the past." 

Intermittent filtration without utilization is held as the only 
practicable means of sewage disposal. This theory takes no 
account of the nitrates which escape to be used as food lower 
down the stream and which may cause serious trouble, and 
therefore it is weU to emphasize the fact that utilization is pos- 
sible under favoring conditions and that, given the behef in its 
element of conservation, a way will be found to make it more 
practicable. 

As an example of what is possible under favoring conditions 
may be cited the broad irrigation plan in use for fifteen years 
at Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y. The whole scheme was 
worked up as a method of disposal, not of profitable farming. 
That it has been profitable is due to the excellent quality of the 
soil and to the favoring topography of a plot of available ground. 
Natural drainage gulKes existed on either side of the field of 
ten acres. 

The four essentials are: 

1. The soil. 

2. The topography. 

3. The plant. 

4. The results. 

Vassar College Sewage Farm 

The soil is a rich brown color and, with the exception of a few 
stones, passes through a 30-mesh sieve. It holds 52.8 per cent 
moisture. The fine holds 75.6 per cent. 

Eleven acres can be irrigated by radial ditches from the pipe 
outlets. 



200 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Analysis of the Soil 
Parts per 1,000,000 



Sieve mesh. 


Per cent pass- 
ing through. 


Humic acid, 
per cent. 


Color ammonia 
solution. 


Parts per 1,000,000. 


Loss on ignition. 


Oxygen 
consumed. 


30 

40 

60 

80 

100 

120 

170 


100 
12. 1 

28.8 
12.6 

17.7 

8.5 
16.6 


I-5I 
1.03 
1.60 
1.78 


18. 5 
18.5 
139 
12.5 
II. 7 

13-5 

25.0 


55 
60 

53 


69.7 
70.9 


59-8 


48 






2.66 


84 


116. 6 



The filter beds are used only at planting time, and in winter if 
necessary because of frozen ground. 

About 56,000 gallons of sewage daily were pumped during 
February and March of the first winter, 1896. 

Total cost of the works, including engineering expenses and 
preliminary reports upon system of disposal to adopt, was 
$7500. 

About 100,000 gallons of sewage are pumped daily from 
September 10 to June 10, approximately, with no offense when 
properly cared for. 

Analysis of Steam Receiving Effluent from Beds 
Parts per 1,000,000 



Date 


Solids 


Alb. Amm. 


Free Amm. 


Nitrites 


Nitrates 


Chlorine 


September 30, 1895 


142.0 


.122 


•094 


.010 


.300 


5-0 


October 14, 1895 


198.0 


.276 


.192 


•033 


1. 000 


8.0 


December 17, 1895 


123.0 


.082 


.090 


.006 


-530 


2.4 


April 16, 1896 


150.0 


. 122 


.014 


.004 


.500 


4.0 


May 28, 1896 


141.5 


.112 


.048 


.Oil 


.400 


6.8 


September 16, 1896 


153-0 


.940 


.148 


.030 


.400 


6.2 


November 21, 1896 


177.0 


.094 


.030 


.002 


.800 


10.6 


April 14, 1897 


— 


.072 


.014 


.006 


.400 


6.0 


November 12, 1897 


210.0 


. 102 


.042 


.005 


.850 


II. I 


September 30, 1898 


235-0 


.182 


.018 


.010 


2.000 


15-6 


December 3, 1904 




.064 


.060 


.007 


2.650 


13-8 


October 13, 1905 


210 .0 


.216 


•034 


.008 


I .000 


8.2 


December 26, 1905 


231.0 


.042 


.092 


.003 


8.000 


II. 


December 12, 1908 


— 


•053 


-054 


.0012 


3.000 


2.80 



DISPOSAL OF WASTES LIABLE TO CONTAMINATE 20I 

The crop is silo corn, giving a yield of fifty tons to the acre at 
the end of ten years, double that from the field the first two years. 
The slow effect on the water of the stream receiving the drainage 
is seen in the preceding table selected from the records of the 
whole time. 

Not every city has the right soil and other conditions. Mas- 
sachusetts has many square miles of sandy areas admirably 
adapted for intensive farming when treated with the now wasted 
water of its metropoKtan sewage. In time this economy will 
replace the almost unbearable condition of its harbor water. 
New York may have more difficulty, but probably land mil be 
found when the requirements are studied more s>TQpathetically. 

All methods of land disposal are liable to the accusation of 
polluting underground supplies. There is a vigorous protest 
being made against the new sewage farms near Paris. All 
the local wells are infected, and there is an epidemic of intestinal 
troubles. The sewage seems to escape between fissures in the 
soil into subterranean sources of supply to the wells {Scientific 
American, Feb. 17, 1900). It would seem wiser to take out as 
much of the food value as possible. 

This saturation of the soil by inland farms and towns can 
hardly be prevented unless the used water is diverted to another 
watershed and so taken to the sea. This is not often practicable. 

There is also, in the near future, to be a common agreement 
to combine in the use of public supplies, abandoning the private 
wells to their fate. It would seem to be the wise solution of 
many problems. Much opposition to sanitary reforms comes 
from the clinging to traditional habits under new conditions. 

The ancestral well is reverenced as devotedly as grandmother's 
china. The pasture spring bubbHng up from white sand 7nnst 
be pure. 

The argument for cropping the sewage field is that so long as 
water carries food it will feed plants the moment conditions 
are favorable. The air is supplied with spores of the plankton 
or rootless plants, etc. ; the earth is full of seeds, and as soon as 
the nitrate and carbonate-bearing water comes to the light, green 



202 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

growth begins. This may clog the watercourse and may be of 
such a nature as to cause offensive odors, or only to become a 
nuisance. 

An effluent is not purified, restored to its pristine condition, 
so long as it is capable of causing a nuisance. It is no argument 
to say that most wells and many bottled waters are in this 
condition. They are not let loose on the land. 

Management of arable land may be safe, even though the 
effluent always shows chlorine and high solids. 



CHAPTER XII 

TREATMENT OF VARIOUS WASTES 

A. Dilution and Screening may be Sufficient for 
Esthetic Reasons. B. Chemical Treatment may 
BE Needed for Sanitary Reasons. C. Bio- 
logic Treatment and Sand Filtration 
FOR Dn^ECT Potability 

Civilized man demands some kind of treatment for his waste 
of daily living. Nomad tribes simply tossed the bones over the 
shoulder and moved off when the refuse heap was too high.. 
Nature's process and the dry air of the regions frequented by 
such tribes in tropic or arctic latitudes in time took care of 
residues. 

But when man settled into permanent habitation, the disposal 
of waste became another matter. The rural dweller has still 
so much space that he leaves wagons and plows, bones and 
refuse piles, an unsightly ring around his habitation. He allows 
sink and barnyard waste to cross his daily path. As a matter 
of course, it is not offensive to him, for it does not mean either 
indecency or disease. 

Both the crowding of his neighbors and his education in 
propriety and value of order and tidiness have so developed 
the sensibiHty of civilized man to dirt and refuse that he re- 
moves them from sight for aesthetic reasons. It has happened 
more than once that as far as health was concerned the dirt 
would have been less harmful if left exposed. 

A Treatment for iEsTHETic Reasons 

The farmhouse drain, the surface gutter of the city, the foul 
brook from a starch factory or creamery, have been hidden or 
cleaned because of this aesthetic sense rather than from a belief 

203 



204 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

in the danger to animals and children from wading in them. 
The suggestion of unpleasant processes had more effect than 
fear of danger. 

As refinement of language and living increases, city streets 
become cleaner, back yards blossom, and beaches and harbors 
are relieved of their burden of wastes. 

What this treatment (of waste waters) shall consist of is 
governed largely by the prominence of one of the three chief 
reasons for improvement — aesthetic, sanitary (nuisance), and 
potable — of the mixed water. 

The waste from a starch factory may be white, milky, soon 
fermenting to a bubbly froth, or a water offensive to the eye, 
that from dye works may discharge a red or blue liquor equally 
unsatisfying to the eye. 

The waste from glue works or a canning factory, even in small 
amounts, may collect on the bank, forming a mass repulsive to 
the eye and yielding vile odors offensive to the nose, polluting 
air as well as water; or a small drain from a house may carry 
imperceptible wastes into a large body of water and on occa- 
sion infect a large area. 

On a known principle of psychology, the nose is most quickly 
offended by disagreeable influences, — a deeply implanted in- 
heritance of a pre-scientific race. 

After experience with refuse piles, one soon becomes con- 
vinced that the disposal by fire should have been resorted 
to. If even the dry refuse were burned, it would^lessen the 
amount now unnecessarily soaked in water only to be dried out 
again. 

For all these reasons, the Inspection Service is to be largely 
increased in the future — a real inspection backed up by lab- 
oratory and testing works. 

Pipe lines are no longer experiments; distribution, drainage, 
and all the paraphernaHa of irrigation are more or less under- 
stood. The one error will be in assuming without trial that 
wastes can be made to pay for themselves. 

The experience in England in 1869-70 shows that failure is 



TREATMENT OF VARIOUS WASTES 20 5 

easy. On the other hand, if the sanitary side is taken as the 
object, the rest is clear gain. 

No interference with Nature's processes is made without a 
penalty. The diversion of flowing water to do man's work for 
him lays upon him the obligation to return that water in good 
condition. 

A very great difficulty in treatment of wastes is their volume. 

The work of the immediate future will He in the direction of 
treatment before dilution, that is, of the wastes at their source 
instead of miles away, after many other elements have com- 
pHcated the problem. To be sure, other wastes may enter the 
stream to neutraHze the effect of the first. Self-purification 
has been a famihar battle ground, but with newer chemicals 
and more changeable processes these conditions are too unstable 
to be rehed upon. 

A record book should be kept, where past experiences may 
suggest reasons for inexplicable conditions. In such compHcated 
matters underground, out of sight out of mind, the real causes 
are often difficult to ferret out. A detective mind must be 
included in the outfit. 

Hence the engineer must have at hand a laboratory outfit. 
This need not be as elaborate as the chemist's. As has been 
said, it is water assay rather than water analysis in the old 
sense that the sanitary engineer needs. He should, however, 
be trained to make the most of simple apparatus in the shortest 
time, since time is to-day the dearest commodity known to 
man. 

For a more permanent laboratory, the writer has always 
advocated one at a university where special problems, either 
chemical or bacteriological or engineering, can be submitted to 
experts. 

The sanitary engineer of the immediate future will have the 
broad oversight of all contributing applications of science. 

Water carriage increased the unaesthetic character of water- 
courses, and as demands increased and standards rose, many 
streams became, to modern eyes, offensive in fact or by suggestion. 



2o6 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

To-day such refuse must be kept out of streams by such means 
as were indicated in the previous chapter, — cremation and earth 
filtration, — or by some chemical or hastening process. 

City sewage is, as we have seen, so dilute that it is only 
when the body of water is small or refuse other than sewage 
proper — garbage - - is mixed with it, that it becomes a 
nuisance. 

The great group of objectionable wastes from the aesthetic 
point of view is composed of those from the trades. These 
wastes often give rise to odors more or less disagreeable because 
suggestive. Man is affected most quickly through his sense of 
smell. The educated nose is the best detector of uncleanness 
or of leaking fixture, gas or sewer. 

Such wastes, therefore, as give rise to odors, even if harmless, 
are the first to be disposed of. It is for that reason that dilu- 
tion above referred to is so popular, and for that reason also 
that many treatments are barred, for the peculiar odors devel- 
oped are held by the neighbors to be a menace to health because 
they are peculiar. Cremation of refuse was long delayed be- 
cause of the occasional accompanying odors. But the public 
is now awake to the beauty of tidiness and order, and is begin- 
ning to recognize the dangers from loose papers in the streets 
and floating refuse in the brooks. It is ready to keep out 
of watercourses all that is possible, and for such as are now 
loaded, to use the process of screening and subsequent crema- 
tion, coagulation, fine screening, cremation, as a remedy for 
most of these troubles. 

B. Treatment for Sanitary Reasons 

Some of the trades wastes are objectionable from a sanitary 
point of view, that is, they foul the air, and the result is lessened 
well-being, whether from direct effect or by taking away ap- 
petite. There are strong objections to sewage mixed with 
garbage and refuse of all sorts. A new term is needed to indi- 
cate this unholy mixture which never ought to exist. Not only 
is any treatment difficult, but the danger from sewage is inten- 



TREATMENT OF VARIOUS WASTES 207 

sified by its coating over orange peel and its enclosure in grease; 
the germs are thus spread out and carried on. 

Prevention should be applied at the source, that is, separation 
of wastes, but until it is, screening, coarse filtration, by coke, 
spongy iron, etc., may precede other treatment. For filtration, 
too much "jelly," whether zoogloea or grease, is a hindrance. 
The straining is delayed until decomposition sets in, and the 
"sludge " is an elusive mass to filter. Rapidity of the various 
stages of treatment is rather more favored than " septic tank" 
processes. 

Colonel Waring's plan of hastening decomposition without 
offense, by forced aeration, has not found as much favor as the 
idea deserves. The sprinkling filter adopts much the same idea, 
but does not give the effective drying of the sludge which the 
strong air current accompHshed in the Waring filter. In his own 
words describing the experiment at Newport, R.I., in 1895: 

" The process by which the impurities of the sewage are re- 
moved is the purely natural one on wh'ch depends the ultimate 
destruction of all organic matter. When sewage is spread over 
the surface of the ground, as in irrigation, it is exposed to the 
atmosphere in thin broad sheets, and the bacteria which reduce 
its putrescible matters are active because air is abundant. The 
process in the aerating tank is essentially the same, but in this 
case the earth is massed in cubical form, and the atmosphere 
is made to -pervade the mass, so that every conceivable plane 
within it presents — so far as bacterial activity is concerned — 
the conditions of a natural surface. 

" The same is true with regard to the straining tanks. While 
the sewage is passing through them, the action is merely mechani- 
cal sedimentation. When the liquid has been xirained off and 
the aeration has begun, the process and the result are the same 
as they would be if the accumulated sludge were spread in ex- 
tremely thin sheets over the surface of a large area of soil. 

"The rate of application was an average of 7,574,400 and a 
maximum of 17,900,388 gallons per acre. 

"The average percentage of purification, as represented by 



2o8 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

the removal of organic nitrogenous matter, accomplished by the 
strainers alone, was 51.3, and by the strainers and aerators 
together, 92.5. At one time a purification of 99.08 per cent was 
reached. 

"After screening, these results demonstrate that: 

'' I. The suspended matters of sewage (sludge) can be mechani- 
cally withheld by straining slowly through suitable material. 

"2. The filth accumulated by this straining material can be 
destroyed and the straining medium restored to a clean condi- 
tion by mere aeration. 

'^3. The successive alternate operations of fouling and cleans- 
ing can be carried on indefinitely, without renewal of the straining 
material. 

"4. The purification obtained by this straining process practi- 
cally equals that accomplished by chemical precipitation, and 
is sujSicient to admit of discharge into any considerable body of 
water not used as a source oS domestic supply or for manufactur- 
ing purpo3es requiring great purity." 

By whatever mechanical device the screening, straining, and 
aeration are supplied, the result to be attained is the oxidation of 
the decomposed products to a condition of inoffensiveness. The 
devices will vary with the conditions and with the inventive 
power of the engineer. 

C. Treatment for Direct Potability 

Involves complete decomposition, oxidation, and fine sand 
filtration, or well-managed coagulation and then mechanical 
filtration or sterilization. These steps are necessary to prevent 
the entrance of any pathogenic germs into the domestic supply. 
It is assumed that minute spores will not develop under condi- 
tions so unfavorable. These last treatments are usually applied 
as a precaution, just before the water intake, while sprinkling 
filters, slate beds, etc., come at the source of the pollution 20 or 
50 miles upstream, for nearly all these modern processes are in 
connection with streams in which the dangerous material has 
nearly all disappeared from sight by dilution. 



TREATMENT OF VARIOUS WASTES 209 

Mr. Elliott A. Kimberly suggests the following general rules 
to govern the needed degree of purification of domestic sewage: 

'^i. Where the sewage efHuent is to be discharged into run- 
ning streams subject to floods and with a water containing 
considerable turbidity at all seasons of the year, the degree of 
purity required need not be more than that of an efHuent which, 
undiluted, will no longer putrefy under summer conditions. 

'^2. In streams, the water of which is clear except at times of 
flood, the purification of the sewage should be such as to remove 
from it the largest practicable quantity of suspended matter, 
so that the visible purity of the stream will not be affected, the 
non-putrefaction of the effluent being taken as coincident with 
a degree of purification which will afford an absence of all but 
small amounts of turbidity. 

''3. In drinking-water streams, and in certain cases of sea 
discharge where shellfish layings must be protected from con- 
tamination, the purification of the sewage must needs be carried 
out to its fullest extent, and besides the production of a chemi- 
cally stable effluent, the problem practically reduces itself to the 
destruction of all the disease-producing bacteria present in the 
raw sewage, by subjecting the well-purified effluent to some form 
of sterilization process." ^ 

Anaerobic filters. '^ A modification of the septic tank is the 
anaerobic filter, which is operated continuously and is at all 
times full of sewage. The air is therefore excluded, and action 
is caused principally by the anaerobic bacteria. 

Complete Sewage Treatment. " The complete treatment of 
sewage would involve its passage through, first, a grit trap and 
screening chamber; second, a septic tank; third, a coarse filter; 
fourth, a fine filter.^ 

" A contact bed, as suggested by John W. Alvord, resembles 
nothing else so much as a huge lung. The emptying and filling 
of the liquid in the contact bed correspond to the inhaling and 
exhaling of a breath, and as the indrawn air in the lung oxidizes 

1 Bulletin University of Wisconsin, No, 331. 

2 Ibid. 



2IO CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

the impurities of the blood through the thin walls of its tissues, 
so do the entrained air and bacteria in the contact bed do 
their work upon the dissolved impurities in the sewage. 

Percolating Filters. " Percolating filters are made of a fine- 
grained material, such as sand or screened cinders, and the 
sewage is applied to the top, as in a sewage farm, and allowed 
to seep through to the underdrains below. In this type of filter 
a straining action takes place on account of the small size of the 
passages between the grains of filtering material, and large 
amounts of solids are retained on or very near the surface, the 
passages being too small to allow the solids to penetrate far into 
the body of the filter.^ 

Contact Beds. '^ The filtering material of contact beds is con- 
tained in a water-tight reservoir, in which the sewage is retained 
for some hours by closing the outlet valves. In this type of 
filter the solid matter is not strained out of the sewage, for the 
passages between the grains of the filter are usually much larger 
than the particles of solid matter in the sewage, and further- 
more the sewage is often let into the contact bed at the bottom, 
sometimes through the same pipes through which it is again 
drained out, thus precluding any true straining action. A large 
part of the solids of the sewage is nevertheless filtered out of 
the sewage by the contact beds. The action is brought about 
by the solids of the sewage settling onto or adhering to the 
grains of filtering material with which they come in contact. 
As the reservoir is emptied of sewage, the solid matter is re- 
tained in the filter, but air is drawn down into the filtering 
material by the removal of the liquid, and this thorough aera- 
tion enables the bacteria, which swarm in the filter, to consume 
a large part of the retained solid matter. Also when the next 
dose of sewage comes into the contact bed, the bacteria which 
have so recently been thoroughly aerated are able to oxidize 
large amounts of the impure matters which are dissolved in the 
sewage." 2 

1 Bulletin University of Wisconsin, No. 331. 

2 Ibid. 



TREATMENT OF VARIOUS WASTES 



211 



This side of the treatment of sewage for drinking water is in 
process of experimentation; some of it is costly in lives, but 
each step adds to our knowledge. Retention of the larger part 
of waste substance at its source will render the later stages 
more effective. 

Need of Treatment. The mixture of certain untreated trade 
wastes of slow decomposition with sewage and their discharge 
into tide water is illustrated in the case of the Charles River, 










<0 



OcQ Wca 









^ 



which in 1896 received the waste from the Brighton Abattoir 
as well as considerable sewage. The wastes from slaughter- 
houses while highly nitrogenous are slowly decomposed and 
prolong the nuisance Hable to result. 

The above chart, prepared from results of an investigation 
by the State Board of Health, shows this very clearly. The 
bringing back by the tide of the yet undecomposed slaughter- 
house waste is shown by the curve of pollution. 

Abattoir situated above Western Avenue. 

Pork-packing estabHshment at Craigie Bridge. 



212 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 










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Craigie I 
Charles 



TREATMENT OF VARIOUS WASTES 213 

Circles represent quantity of polluting material, — black, 
sewage; light, manufacturing wastes. 

N.B. Analyses also show change from albuminoid to free 
ammonia upon standing seven days. 

The sewage purification works at the plant of the AUis- 
Chalmers Company at Milwaukee consists of four concrete 
septic tanks, four anaerobic filters and trickling filters. Below 
the tanks the sewage is aerated by fall over weirs and some 
steps, and enters the anaerobic filter from the bottom. From 
here the sewage passes to the siphon chambers, w^hich discharge 
it onto the trickhng filter below. 

This disposal plant is interesting, as the effluent is used again 
in the shops for sanitary purposes, boilers, and for washing 
after being purified. Such use has an advantage in that the 
purified sewage is not nearly so hard as is the city water, and 
therefore there is little trouble with boiler scale.^ 

In The Tra\ds Hydrolytic Tanks at Norwich, England, the 
theory is that sewage matters become colloid and dissolved 
(more or less) as they mix and flow with the water supply, and 
that purification is a process or desolution, a physical rather 
than chemical process and more active than the vital processes. 

ColHns has installed four tanks each with three compartments, 
and splines of jarrah wood to attract the fine suspended solids 
and change the colloids. The reduction chamber, has cones for 
settling and withdraw^al. The hydrolyzing chamber flows up- 
ward and has scum channels and sludge removers. 

A Review of Twenty-one Years' Experiments upon the 

Purification of Sewage at the Lawrence 

ExPERiJ^iENT Station 

" It may be said fairly that the investigations at the 
Lawrence Experiment Station laid the foundations for the sci- 
entific treatment of sewage and have given the initiative for 
similar investigations in this and other countries. The work 
was planned by Hiram F. Mills, A.M., C.E., a member of the 

^ Bulletin University of Wisconsin, No. 331. 



214 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

State Board of Health, and has been carried on under his general 
supervision. 

^' The report for 1891 took up the subject of the perma- 
nency of filters. Early in this year a gravel filter was operated 
at a rate of 220,000 gallons per acre daily, the sewage being 
appHed in sixty or seventy doses per day. Good nitrification 
results were obtained without artificial aeration of the filter; in 
fact, this was a true trickling filter, as is now known. 

" It was shown, for instance, that storage of fresh Lawrence 
sewage for twenty-four hours doubled the free ammonia and 
decreased the organic nitrogen present one-half. Other changes, 
such as an increase in the number of bacteria present, also took 
place. 

'' In 1895 investigations were continued as to the best meth- 
ods of treating sewage filters to insure permanency; on the best 
preliminary treatment of sewage to remove sludge before fil- 
tration and the different methods of aerating sewage filters. 
In this year, also, were made the first experiments upon the 
purification by filtration of industrial sewage as seen in tan- 
neries, paper mills, wool-scouring works, etc. The stable char- 
acter of the effluents from trickling filters operated at high 
rates and aerated a portion of the time by means of a current 
of air was first shown at this period. 

'' These observations were made prior to the English studies 
upon the stability of the effluents of such filters. In this year, 
furthermore, certain filters of coarse materials, gravel-stones, 
pieces of coke, etc., were operated at rates of 1,000,000 gallons 
per acre daily, and were aerated generally only from one to 
two and one-half hours daily. 

'^ From the first, studies looking to the removal of the matters 
in suspension in sewage sedimentation, chemical precipitation 
and coke straining were made. 

'' Early in 1899 there was put into operation a trickling filter 
io| feet in depth, constructed of broken stone and operated 
at the rate of 2,000,000 gallons per acre daily. 

" The first hydrolytic tank was started also at the station in 



TREATMENT OF VARIOUS WASTES 215 

1898. ' As it had become evident that the greatest work in septic 
tanks occurred where the bacteria were most numerous, — as 
on the sides, bottom and top of the tank, — it was considered 
that a tank filled with coarse broken stone would afford a very 
extensive foothold and breeding place for the classes of bacteria 
necessary for sludge disposal,' and the tank was so arranged that 
the sewage passed upward through this stone. 

" In 1900 analyses and measurements of the gas produced 
by septic tanks were made and investigations concerning the 
efficiency of septic treatment of different classes of sewage. 

" In this year contact filters of roofing slate and brick, with 
regular spaces between each pair of slates or bricks, were first 
put into operation. Two of these filters are described in the 
report for 1901, the slate filters being similar to those operated 
in more recent years in England by Dibdin. 

" The year 1904 was devoted largely to the improvement 
of the sand filters that had been in operation for sixteen years, 
and to studies of methods for the disposal of nitrogenous and 
other organic matters by these filters. 

'^ In 1906 a complete resume was given of the comparative 
value of sand, contact and trickling filters for the disposal of 
organic matter, and the comparative rates at which such filters 
can be operated. 

" In 1907 the most important special work was a continued 
study of methods for the distribution of sewage upon trickling 
filters and observations on the refiltration of trickling filter 
effluents through sand, coagulation, and mechanical filters. 

" Since 1895, moreover, much attention has been given to 
the purification of wastes from manufacturing industries, and, 
as a result, reasonable and efficient methods for the treatment 
of most of these wastes have been developed and published in 
the annual reports. Among the wastes studied have been those 
from tanneries, paper mills, carpet mills, woolen mills, wool-scour- 
ing works, dye works, shoddy mills, creameries, yeast factories, 
glue works, gas works, etc." 

H. W. Clark, 1908. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE COMMUNITY AND THE INDIVIDUAL 

The Education and the Position of the Sanitary 

Engineer in the Progress of Modern 

Sanitation 

Out of the chaos of conflicting ideas and interests brought 
about by the rapid development of material resources there will 
come some controlling factors to preserve the race of man from 
degradation and extinction. All ages have had this thread of 
prophecy, which the succeeding age felt to be as far from 
fulfillment as the last. But yet the forward look brought a 
vision to some seer. 

According to Mr. H. G. Wells, as expressed in " Anticipations, '^ 
a study of the reaction of mechanical and scientific progress 
upon human life and thought, the saving element is coming 
through the engineering and medical professions. These essays 
were written before the rise to prominence of the sanitary 
engineer as at present understood, and it is to this group of 
engineers concerned with the preventive side of what the past 
century knew as medicine that the world now looks for that new 
influence which shall leaven the mass of sordid living whether 
of excess or poverty. By virtue of their studies and training 
there may be formed a new ideal of rational living. 

Prof. Dugald C. Jackson in a lecture before the Stevens Institute 
Eng. Soc, Nov. 23, 1909, said: 

^'The profession of the engineer demands a creative imagina- 
tion cultivated to the sober clear sight which sees things as they 
are — pohtical and social sciences must be added to the list. 
The existence of civiHzation as we know it, and to a large degree 
its advancement, depend upon transportation and intercommu- 
nication, which are fundamentally engineering industries. Are 

216 



EDUCATION AND POSITION OF THE SANITARY ENGINEER 217 

the engineers then to allow those important political and civic 
activities which cling around civiHzed Hfe to fall under the sole 
direction of others? 

"However well a man knows the physical and mathematical 
sciences he cannot make the most of his abilities as an engineer 
unless he also understands the human character and the trend 
of human progress. 

"There is a failure to impress on the mind of the student 
that the economic subjects are intimately related with the work 
of his profession." 

How much more is this true of that one whose whole training 
should be toward community welfare ! The very name implies 
the direction in which his talents must be used, engineering 
applied to health or human welfare. 

That person or thing must be understood before it can be 
helped or modified. 

As the successful physician needs to understand his case in 
all its bearings, so the sanitary engineer who is to deal with 
problems of air and water, dust and food transportation, habits 
and idiosyncrasies of the multitude, needs the wide knowledge 
of which Professor Jackson speaks. His education must include 
an appreciation of the elements which go to make up this 
complex life. 

Since life is short and the days of preparation shorter still, the 
engineer must not be fed with chopped food but stimulated to 
exert his full powers of assimilation. Foundational principles 
of related sciences must be added to the engineering training 
and these principles must be stated in a digestible form. There 
is not time nor is there need of the technique of chemistry, 
physics, and biology. Trained workers may be employed in these 
lines, but the understanding of the meaning of these sciences 
and their relation to the results the engineer is aiming for is 
essential to the successful carrying out of the projects for human 
betterment. 

It is true that an engineer need not be a chemist, but he does 
need chemistry — a very different matter. He needs an under- 



2l8 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Standing of chemical language if he is not to be at the mercy 
of ignorant or fraudulent dealers and promoters. In science 
it is knowledge, not belief, that is needed. Just how to present 
this foundational knowledge Vvdthout being superficial is the 
present problem. 

There will probably be found a certain combination most 
available for opening the safe. It must come through a co- 
operation of the teachers and experienced engineers. It will 
probably be an engineer who has had a varied training, having 
changed his school and his course two or three times, and then 
changed his occupation, who will have just the inspiration to 
make an effective ''short cut." Meanwhile the general 
phrases "sanitary chemistry" and ''sanitary biology" must 
cover such endeavors as may be made to give the most in the 
shortest time and to give it in an assimilable condition. The 
engineering student is apt to suffer from indigestion from this 
concentrated food, it is true, hence he is given that for which 
he declares he has not and never shall have use. 

There are not wanting indications that the extreme of special- 
izing has been reached and that the coming leader will have a 
broader foundation as well as a sounder community spirit. 

The civic sense is just now being aroused to the problems of 
crowded living brought about by the inventions so readily 
adopted and by the apparent gain in combined effort, a gain 
in material advance offset by a loss in human well-being. The 
warring elements of industrial life need study and enlighten- 
ment of both sides. A balance sheet must be drawn by experts. 
Adjustment is needed in nearly every department of business 
and manufacture which touches human living and working 
conditions. 

Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick in an address before the College 
of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, April 14, 1909, said: 

"People need to be taught how to manage efficiently the 
machinery of life. This is the problem of the biological engineer. " 

In the exceedingly complex life of to-day it is evident that 
there is needed a strong force to weld the heterogeneous elements 



EDUCATION AND POSITION OF THE SANITARY ENGINEER 219 

into a working combination, a force which has the confidence 
of the community as the minister, the doctor, and the lawyer 
had in the early colonial days. The age has developed by mechan- 
ical progress to such an extent that a new force in sympathy 
with this kind of progress is needed for guidance into a safe chan- 
nel. Conditions have reached that point at which wise use of the 
limitless resources science has provided is the essential element in 
human welfare. There must be economy in securing health and 
comfort for the. people in order that there may be means for 
more health and comfort for more people. 

For this new work the new profession, engineering, is taking 
the place in public confidence occupied by the so-called learned 
professions of earlier times, not because the world has no longer 
need of leaders but because its leaders must have that insight 
into conditions which intimate knowledge alone gives and be- 
cause they must be in sympathy with change. The modern 
world is in a state of flux, and will no longer accept as final 
''Thus the fathers did." 

This is perhaps the reason why the minister, the doctor, and 
the lawyer have no longer the authority they once had over the 
minds and actions of the people. They go too far back in the 
centuries for their precedents. 

Of the engineer there have been evolved many sorts in the 
course of the conquest of the world's forces. The civil engineer 
is essential to the strong network of railroads; a very important 
person he is in the general scheme of things, but his business is 
to serve the railroads. The mechanical engineer furnishes the 
working combination of materials which the mining engineer 
brings from the depths of the earth; his work is to displace human 
labor by machinery. The electrical engineer handles the earth's 
forces at the behest of great combinations of capital, as does the 
chemical engineer, for the public good undoubtedly, but never- 
theless these men are not free agents, as the purely scientific 
investigator has always claimed to be. 

Dr. Leo H. Baekeland in an address as president of the Amer- 
ican Electrochemical Society, Pittsburgh, May, 1910, said: 



220 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

"Modern human dynamics have reached an intensity never 
witnessed before. . . . 

"Let me assert it emphatically: the two most powerful men 
of our generation are the scientist and the engineer. . . . The 
masses are unaware of the immense power of the scientist and 
the engineer because both of them modestly play the role of 
Hhe servant in the house.' . . . 

"To put it tersely, I dare say that the last hundred years under 
the influence of the modern engineer and the scientist have done 
more for the betterment of the race than all the art, all the civi- 
lizing efforts, all the so-called classical literature, of past ages, for 
which some respectable people want us to have such an exagger- 
ated respect." 

Since 1890 there has been slowly developing the sanitary 
engineer, trained to consider public service affairs, water supply 
and waste disposal, questions of public health caused by bad 
living and working conditions, questions of disinfection, of 
transportation and distribution, and of the effect of large indus- 
tries on human welfare. This engineer has begun to serve on 
public commissions as the agent of the philanthropic element 
in the community which has the will but not the knowledge. 

There are not wanting signs that from a mere employee this 
engineer is emerging as a leader of thought, a shaper of pubKc 
opinion. His support will come from the community as a whole, 
not from any one special interest. He will become so important 
as to be outside political control, especially when the welfare of 
the whole group becomes paramount even in political thought. 
It will become increasingly clear that control of some sort is 
needed, and that instead of all striving to make more money to 
spend, some must learn how to make a given sum go farther and 
bring more reward in health and happiness. 

The sanitary engineer has to-day the best prospect of becoming 
that leader. He has thus trenched on the ground hitherto held 
by the medical profession, and has usurped the moral standpoint 
of the preacher and insisted upon a new basis for law, the people^s 
right to health as well as right of way. 



EDUCATION AND POSITION OF THE SANITARY ENGINEER 2 21 

Prof. Henry S. Carhart, in an address at Throop Institute, 
Pasadena, California, June 8, 1910, said: 

''The engineer is now more than ever an essential factor in 
affairs. He is (rather) the masterful man who unites oceans 
and revises the paths of commerce; who levels hills and removes 
mountains if they chance to be in his way; who changes the course 
of rivers or sends them through tunnels to generate electric light 
and power and to convert deserts into fruitful fields. 

"If we inquire somewhat more minutely into the qualities 
that make for leadership in engineering, we shall find that 
thoroughness, originality, and the habit of making all mental 
acquirements one's own are essential. Originality is a gift, 
but it' may be cultivated: the two other qualities are certainly 
within the reach of every young man with normal mental en- 
dowments. ... Thoroughness is associated with sincerity in the 
conduct of public works. . . . There is still another (quahty) 
which is a supreme test of fitness for public service. It is the 
moral quality of honesty. Failing in this there is no compensa- 
tion — especially so in these days of uncovered bribery and graft. 
The honest engineer's opinions are not for sale to the highest 
bidder. He is entitled to compensation for his judgment and 
his decisions, but they cannot be purchased, a distinction with a 
marked difference. 

''The great civic and economic facts of the larger world should 
be a part of the engineer's outfit. His part in the world's work 
has close connection with those social and economic movements 
that are conditioned on future development." 

This new sort of engineering person needs a new designation. 

Community engineer might serve as a term descriptive of the 
man who serves the whole community and considers its welfare 
in general. 

Civic engineer is a shorter descriptive term, and if civic is kept 
broadly to mean any small community as well as a large city, 
is perhaps satisfactory. 

Municipal engineer has been adopted in a few places, but 
must be supplemented by rural engineer to be fully adequate. 



222 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Public-service engineer comes nearest to giving a full expla- 
nation in the title, for the trained person is likely to come up 
from the employee to be the guiding force in public-service 
organizations. 

The endeavor of medicine to adapt itself to modern conditions 
has been more noteworthy than the efforts of either law or 
theology. Its high moral code of disinterested service to all has 
kept the ideals of medicine much more in touch with progress. 

Preventive medicine was an admirable watchword, public 
health doctor an expressive title. Nevertheless the profession 
has been hampered by tradition, bound by authority, and not 
wholly free to branch out into new fields. But to-day research 
in the lines of preventive medicine, the use of all scientific 
resources to find the reasons why, is absorbing the energies of 
the medical profession. All honor to it. 

There is, however, another element in the successful control 
and application of the knowledge thus gained, in the determin- 
ing efficiency of health measures. 

The mechanical basis of modern life must come to the aid 
of moral and personal influence. It is not enough to tell men to 
do the right thing; they must be fenced in from the wrong thing. 

For all these reasons it would seem that the civic or public- 
service engineer is the emerging leader in community welfare. 



PART II 

LABORATORY NOTES 




Convenient Hygrodeik for Inspection of 
Humidity at Regular Intervals 




Form of Recording Thermometer Useful in Test 
OF Ventilation 



PART II 



A LABORATORY EXERCISE ON THE INSPECTION OF 

VENTILATION 

Air Supply Tests and the Instruments Available 

There is needed a more frequent asking of the question "Is 
this air safe to breathe ? " as it is becoming a common question 
"Is this water safe to drink? " There are indications that there 
will be in the future a wider use of recording instruments or 
hourly readings of standard instruments for temperature and 
humidity to govern the circulation of air in the space. 

For a quick indicator, the estimation of carbon dioxide is to be 
recommended. If expense is no object the laboratory should 
have two Petterson testers, in order that one may be always in 
commission and available for carrying on inspection trips. 

For many approximate estimations, as for instance in a series 
of schoolhouse tests, the automatic pipette with the steam 
vacuum bottles serves the inspector well. 

VENTILATION TEST 

Report by 

Date Room 

Sketch of room with dimensions, air ducts, doors, windows, transoms, gas lights, 
steam radiators. 

Samples where taken. 

Change of temperature during test. 

Change of humidity during test. 

Change of CO2 during test. 

Use of room during test, occupant's light. 

Usual use of room. 

Form of heating, lighting, ventilation. 

225 



2 26 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON STANDARD METHODS FOR 
THE EXAMINATION OF AIR. — AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH 
ASSOCIATION 

I. Laboratory Methods for Determining Carbon Dioxide with a 
High Degree of Accuracy 

'' Numerous efforts have been made to develop methods of 
analyzing air for carbon dioxide, applicable to the varying con- 
ditions under wh ch the chemist, sanitary engineer, or inspector 
must work. The chemist is called upon to make exceedingly 
accurate, careful analyses for scienf.fic purposes, while the in- 
spector and engineer are called upon to make estimates and 
comparisons. It is plain that no one system or method will 
satisfactorily meet the requirements of all these conditions, and 
therefore in preparing a description of the most satisfactory 
processes for use as standard methods the available methods 
have been classed either as accurate methods or as general tests. 

'' For accurate, scientific work, say when accuracy to one-tenth 
of a part per ten thousand is required, the committee recommends 
as the standard the Petterson apparatus as modified by Sonden, 
one form of which has been used by Dr. F. G. Benedict of the 
Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory for over a year with the great- 
est satisfaction.^ 

'' This apparatus measures a given volume of air, and absorbs 
the contained carbon dioxide in potassium hydroxide, afterward 
accurately measuring the remainder, thus giving the carbon 
dioxide present by volume. The air is measured in all cases at 
the same pressure and temperature and is measured accurately 
by means of the readings on a very finely graduated capillary. 
The principle is simple, but accurate operation requires con- 
siderable technique. 

" The apparatus may be had by applying to Sonden in Stock- 
holm, at a cost of something less than one hundred dollars. 

" For accurate inspection work, say one-quarter of a part per 
ten thousand, the Eimer and Amend form of the Petterson 

1 This apparatus will shortly be described in print by Dr. Benedict. 



L.\BOR.\TORY EXERCISES 



227 



Palmquist apparatus is recommended. This is very similar to 
the Sonden form but not as dehcate. Its cost is about fifty-five 
dollars. 



2. Practical Methods of Determining Carbon Dioxide for 
Sanitary Purposes 

''The time method of Cohen and Appleyard (1894) is recom- 
mended as combining practicabihty and reasonable accuracy in 
a degree suitable for practical sanitary work. 

" Standard Method for Carbon Dioxide. If a. dilute solution 
of Hme water, slightly colored with phenolphthalein, is brought in 
contact mth air containing more than enough CO2 to combine 
with all the hme present, the solution will be gradually decolor- 
ized, the length of time required depending upon the amount of 
CO2 present. The quantity of hme water and volume of air 
remaining the same, the rate of decolorization varies inversely 
with the amount of carbon dioxide. The method is scientific in 
principle because it recognizes the fact that the absorption of 
CO2 by calcium or barium hydroxide solution is a time reaction. 

" Collect samples of air in one-half -liter glass-stoppered bot- 
tles by any of the methods of collection. Run in 10 cc. standard 
lime water, replace stopper, and note time. Shake bottle vigor- 
ously with both hands until color disappears. Note time re- 
quired, and ascertain corresponding amount of CO2 from table. 



Time in minutes to 




Times in minutes to 




decolorize solution. 


CO2 per 10,000. 


decolorize solution. 


CO2 per 10,000. 


I| 


16.0 


3l 


6.0 


I- 


13-8 


4 


5 


3 


I^ 


12.8 


4i 


5 


I 


2 


12.0 


5 


4 


6 


2j 


II -5 


5l 


4 


4 


2 


8.6 


6i 


4 


2 


34 


7-7 


7^ 


3 


5 



" Standard Lime Water for General Tests. To a liter of dis- 
tilled water add 2.5 cc. of phenolphthalein (made by dissolving 
.7 gram of phenolphthalein in 50 cc. of alcohol and adding an 



228 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

equal volume of water). Stand the bottle of water on a piece 
of white paper and add drop by drop saturated lime water 
until a faint color persists for a full minute. Now add 6.3 cc. 
of saturated lime water and quickly cork the bottle, or connect 
the pipette. 

3. Methods of Collection 

" In the case of the Cohen and Appleyard Method particularly, 
the method of collecting the sample is fully as important as the 
actual test. For this the committee recommends as standard 
for accurate work the method of collection by water siphon. 

" Standard Method of Collection. The Water Siphon Method. 
Two bottles (diameter one- third the height), volume about one- 
half liter, of nearly equal capacity should be fitted with rubber 
stoppers carrying small glass tubing connected by several feet 
of rubber connector, with clamps. Fill one bottle completely 
with water nearly free from carbon diox de. 

" The pair of bottles is taken to the place from which the air is 
to be collected. The inlet tube may be long enough to reach to 
near the ceiling, or short; if long, the first siphoning should be 
rejected, to secure filling the inlet tube with the air desired, the 
stoppers exchanged, and the sample taken. The air-filled bottle 
should be stoppered and taken to the laboratory; or the test 
solution at once added, and the bottle stoppered and shaken, 
noting minutes and seconds. One bottle of water with a small 
reserve will serve for a number of takings before absorbing a 
deleterious amount of CO2. 

" The Steam Vacuum Method may be used as an alternative 
in less accurate work. The steam is supplied by a 500-cc. flask 
serving as a boiler, with a Bunsen burner to apply the heat. 
The flask should be fitted with a rubber stopper carrying a 
No. 6 glass tube so arranged that one end extends within one- 
half inch of the bottom of the bottle when placed in position on 
the stand. The bottles should be of about 500 cc. capacity, 
made for a ground-glass stopper but fitted with a rubber stopper. 

'' To prepare the jet, the water in the flask should boil for five 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 229 

minutes in order to expel completely the air in the water and the 
flask. The pressure should be sufficient to throw the vaporized 
steam at least i foot above the exposed end of the tube. 

" Place the empty bottle on the stand in an inverted position 
and allow to remain for three minutes. In the meantime apply 
a thin coating of vaseHne halfway up the sides of the stopper. 
The vaseline acts as an unguent, reducing the coefficient of 
friction to such an extent that the principal resistance is due to 
the reaction of the stopper against compression. This enables 
one to force the stopper in far enough to bring the glass and 
rubber into intimate contact, which is essential. The vaseline 
also fills the interstices between the rubber and the glass, so as 
to make leakage impossible. 

" Protecting the hand with a cloth, raise the bottle from the 
stand, and the instant it clears the end of the tube insert the 
stopper while the bottle is still inverted. The stopper may be 
pushed in more securely by pushing it against the table with a 
few pounds' pressure while the bottle is still in the inverted 
position. Keep the stopper in under this pressure for a few 
minutes until the vacuum begins to form, after which the atmos- 
pheric pressure will keep it in place. 

'' All the bottles required are treated in the same way. The 
rubber stopper should be at least one size larger than would 
ordinarily be used for the bottle, and should project three-eighths 
of an inch or more so as to be easily removed when the sample is 
to be taken. 

" Sample bottles may be tested for completeness of vacuum 
by holding them in an inverted position under water at 70'^ F. 
and removing the stopper. After the water has replaced the 
vacuum, the stopper is inserted and the bottle removed. 

4. Bacteriological Determinations 

'' The determination of the number of bacteria in air seems to 
the committee to have less importance than was once believed. 
Disease spread through air is probably due most often to direct 
pollution with spray from the mouth; and it does not seem 



230 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

possible to measure such pollution in a quantitative way. The 
total number of saprophytic bacteria often corresponds with the 
amount of dust present. This is especially true when the dust 
is not of metallic or other industrial origin. In the examina- 
tion of the air of barns, dairies, theaters, factories, and streets 
bacterial data may prove of value." 

C.-E. A. WiNSLOW, Chairman. 

Ellen H. Richards, 

G. A. SOPER, 

J. BosLEY Thomas, 
John Weinzirl. 

References. 

Cohen and Appleyard. 1894. Popular Methods for Esti- 
mating Carbon Dioxide in Air. Chemical News, LXX, in. 

Gilbert, R. W., 1909. An Improvement in Heating and 
Ventilating: the Use of Recording Thermometers and Hygrome- 
ters by the Ventilating Engineer. Industrial Engineering, I, 271. 

Gordon, M. H. 1904. Report on a Bacterial Test for Esti- 
mating Pollution of Air : Supplement to the Thirty-Second Annual 
Report of the Local Government Board Containing the Report of 
the Medical Ofhcer for 1902-03, 421. • 

Great Britain, 1909. Report of the Departmental Com^ 
mittee on Humidity and Ventilation in Cotton Weaving Sheds. 
London. 

Shaw, W. N., 1907. Air Currents and the Laws of Ventila- 
tion. Cambridge. 

SoPER, G. A., 1908. The Air and Ventilation of Subways. 
New York. 

Ward, R. de C, 1899. Practical Exercises in Elementary 
Meteorology. Boston. 

Winslow, C.-E. a., 1908. A Method for Determining the 
Number of Dust Particles in Air. Engineering News, LX, 748. 

Winslow, C.-E. A., and Robinson, E. A., 1909. An Inves- 
tigation of the Extent of the Bacterial Pollution of the Atmos- 
phere by Mouth Spray. Journal of Infectious Diseases, VII, 17. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 231 

TWELVE CLASS EXERCISES FOR FOURTH 

YEAR SANITARY ENGINEERING 

STUDENTS 

In Examination of Water and Wastes. To be 

Supplemented by Three or Four 

Field Trips 

LABORATORY PRECAUTIONS 

Although the student knows in a general way, from his expe- 
rience in the bacteriological laboratory, the need for clean han- 
dling of apparatus, yet when he comes into the water assay room 
he needs reminding that only clean hands will keep apparatus 
clean and that exact and delicate work cannot be done with 
unclean dishes and tubes. Approximate results are valuable 
only when obtained by rigid compliance with exact requirements. 
The following notice posted over the sink provided with hot 
water, soap, and towels has proved an effective reminder. 

CLEAN HANDS THE FIRST ESSENTIAL FOR THE WATER ANALYST 

Not merely free from ordinary dirt, but freshly cleansed from 
the constantly accumulating ammonia, chlorine, nitrites, etc., con- 
stantly being excreted. 

During the progress of the work not more than half an hour 
should elapse between complete rinsings of the hands. Each 
student will rinse out all used apparatus and will carefully dis- 
pose of all sewage residues lest a neighbor may unwittingly 
handle them. 

Iron rust stains may be removed from dishes and glassware 
by dilute i to 3 hydrochloric acid. Manganese stains in dis- 
tilhng flasks, for example, require the acid hot. Unless there is, 
as there should be, a separate room for all such severe cleaning 
operations, care must be taken not to vitiate the air of the labora- 
tory with acid or ammonia fumes. 

An excellent cleaning acid for organic matter stains is potas- 
sium bichromate dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid. It is 



232 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

hard on sinks and fixtures, and flushing should be conscientiously 
carried out. Potassium or sodium hydrate is to be at hand for 
cleaning greasy and acid dishes ; also alcohol and ether for clean- 
ing and drying measuring flasks. But the laboratory cleanser 
par excellence is hot soapsuds, and for hands a nailbrush in addi- 
tion to plenty of clean towels. It is as disgraceful to find finger 
marks on water beakers in the laboratory as on water tumblers 
on the dining table. 

Although each student will in the main have his own apparatus, 
yet some flasks, dishes, etc., will be in common use. Duty to 
one's neighbor demands that these dishes should be left in good 
condition after use. 

Not only must the air of the water laboratory be free from 
fumes but from dust, which, settling on the apparatus, contami- 
nates the hands, even if bottle, flasks, etc., are closed. 

With these precautions made a habit, the analyst may permit 
himself to judge many things by approximate results. 

As in any other professional occupation, each establishment 
will have its own peculiar methods, so that the student can profit- 
ably learn only general principles which may be modified to suit 
his employer or the peculiar circumstances in which he may find 
himself in his profession. 

Certain preliminary qualitative tests are as saving of time 
and productive of information for a classification of the samples as 
are the tests applied to samples of steel for reinforcement. Such 
may be roughly classified by a few physical tests, as appearance 
of fracture, bending, action under a drop of acid, etc. 

EXERCISE I 

Preliminary Tests, Results Governing the Quantities 

TO BE Taken for Certain Determinations 
From each sample of water half fill two 50-cc. Nessler tubes, to 
the one set add two or three drops of Nessler reagent, watching 
for the heavy reddish precipitate which indicates sewage, the 
less heavy lighter-colored precipitate which indicates polluted 
water or effluents, the deep yellow color without precipitate 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 233 

which shows the presence of too much ammonia for a good water, 
or the absence of any color, which is favorable as far as it goes. 
Waters with brown color will turn darker on the addition of the 
alkaline reagent. Waters containing iron may give a precipitate, 
but several things are learned by this test, and not infrequently 
half a day's time is saved. 

To the other set of 50-cc. tubes a few drops of silver nitrate 
are added; if a heavy precipitate is formed, two or three cubic 
centimeters may be required. If no perceptible cloudiness ap- 
pears, the water is to be concentrated, as it probably is nearly 
normal in chlorine, i to 2 parts per million. Unless there is a 
distinct tendency to prec pitate it is advisable to concentrate, 
since results between 20 parts per million for a direct titration of 
25 cc. of the sample are liable to be too high. A very heavy pre- 
cipitate remaining after acidifying by nitric acid shows that the 
estimation will be more accurately made in a measured volume 
of 5 cc. made up to 25 cc. with chlorine-free distilled water. 

Having in this manner classified the two or three samples 
assigned to him the student proceeds to make the tests and record 
the results on the blank form provided for the purpose. 



SANITARY WATER ANALYSIS 


No 


Parts per 1,000.000 




Address for report 




Locality 




Date 




Description of Water 





Physicat 

ExAiflNATION 



-' uoior. . 
I Odor 



Chemical 
Examination | 



r Turbidity 
I Sediment. 
' Color 

Cold. 

Hot. 

' Free Ammonia 

Albuminoid Ammonia , 

Nitrites 

•{ Nitrates 

Hardness 

Chlorine 

l^ Oxygen consumed . . . . 



Remarks 



234 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

For determination of turbidity of sewage samples Mr. H. W. 
Clark of the Lawrence Experiment Station has successfully used a 
standard the basis of which is the actual material passing down 
through contact or intermittent-continuous sewage filters col- 
lected from the effluent of a filter in good working order and kept 
moist and sterilized by two or three cubic centimeters of formal- 
dehyde. The set so prepared will last without clotting for two or 
three months. Standard sets are made up from a strong mixture 
in which the solid matter in a given number of cubic centimeters 
has been determined, o.oi gram per liter means i.o turbidity, 
o.iogram means lo.o turbidity in parts per 100,000.^ 

TESTS 

First. Note general appearance, which in many instances will 
suffice for an experienced investigator to determine to which 
General class the sample probably belongs. Therefore the 

Appearance. student should begin the practice at once. 

Observe turbidity, sediment, color, sizable organisms, and any 
special characters, as sand, iron rust, etc. 

Apparatus. For a simple observation it is sufficient to note the 
extent of both turbidity and sediment, in words, as ''clear," 
''none," ''slight," " considerable," etc., but for an exact deter- 
mination various instruments are employed, such as platinum 
wire, turbidimeters, etc. Some analysts prefer to shake the 
sample and mix the sediment with the suspended matter and call 
it all turbidity. As the removal of the readily settling particles 
presents comparatively little difficulty, it would seem more 
logical to know the quantity remaining suspended after twelve 
hours. For the muddy river water the method of the turbidim- 
eter is most used. 

If desired, the amount of sediment may be estimated by the 
separator centrifuge. 

At times, further examination of the suspended matter or sedi- 
ment with a microscope is desirable. 

^ Thirty-sixth Report Massachusetts State Board of Health, 1904. 



LABOIL\TORY EXERCISES 235 

Second. Although to the experienced observer only is odor 
an argument of value, yet since with experience it becomes of 
distinct importance, the student's attention should Odor, Hot 
be directed to the technique of its determination. ^°^ ^°^^- 

Just as one can be sure of alcohol in a man's breath, so one can 
be sure of the presence of certain organisms in water or of certain 
chemical products of decomposition — odors which accompany 
pollution. To the initiated, odor is one of the most enlightening 
tests to be applied to water. 

Apparatus. A tall, slender beaker without a Hp and with a 
rim so even that a watch glass will rest closely enough not to al- 
low the warmed vapor to escape easily. This watch glass should 
be just a little larger than the rim. 

The capacity of the beaker is conveniently about 300 cc. 

Procedure. The beakers are placed on an iron plate pre- 
viously heated by gas or electricity, and allowed to come just to 
the point of giving off steam bubbles, but not hot enough to allow 
the liberated gases to escape from under the still cool watch glass. 
The freed gases will be condensed in the vapor in the upper part of 
the beaker, and on cooling five minutes, not more, a rotary motion 
and quick sliding of the watch glass will permit plunging the nose 
into the beaker without scalding. The judgment must be ready 
for a quick decision, since the odor is usually very evanescent. 
The increase or the change in odor on heating, often noticed, is 
due to one or more of several causes, — splitting of substances, 
developing of new ones, like the roasting of coffee; the collection 
of the diffused odor into a smaller space, or the liberation by heat 
of ready-formed oil globules, for instance, from enveloping cells. 

The cold odor is determined by agitation of a considerable 
sample (2 to 4 quarts) in a bottle with a neck not less than one 
inch wide. A narrow-necked bottle will not serve. 

Third. The chemical test for ammonia by means of the 
well-known Nessler reagent. In many cases this test alone is 
decisive, for sewage is always high in ammonia and polluted 
waters carry a large portion for long distances. It is only 
when the sewage passes through seeded ground (nitrifying) that 



236 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

the ammonia quickly disappears. And it is only in contami- 
nated and imperfectly filtered waters that high ammonia does 
not mean sewage. The one exception (besides leakage of a 
neighboring ammonia plant or in distilled water) where the 
presence of ammonia is without sanitary significance is in deep 
wells in the coal measures, or in sandstones above the oil, where 
''prehistoric ammonia" remains, because those geological for- 
mations do not apparently carry the nitrifying organism. Other 
tests do not, in these cases, confirm the inference of pollution. 

Apparatus. A set of test tubes all of the same size, depending 
upon the quantity of water at hand. They may contain 10, 50, 
or 100 cc. 50-cc. Nessler tubes 9 inches high to the mark are 
most convenient. The one essential is that they shall be com- 
parable in diameter and in the color of the glass. 

Reagents. Nessler's reagent is the standard. 

Procedure. Fill the tubes to the mark with the waters to be 
compared. Add from a glass tube about i cc. of the reagent. 
A quick release allows the heavy liquid to drop to the bottom 
without assistance. 

Sewage gives a heavy brick-red precipitate, color and quan- 
tity modified by the presence of other things, but unmistakable. 

Polluted waters give a less precipitate, or a deep red-orange 
color. Waters contaminated with trade wastes vary and may not 
give a decisive test, but other indications will differentiate them 
from the clear colorless natural spring waters which give not a 
trace of ammonia. If iron is present in a solution, it is possible 
to be deceived by its color, but the characteristic red precipitate 
reveals itself on standing half an hour. 

Distillation is resorted to in all doubtful cases and in most 
cases where small quantities do have sanitary significance, since 
it leaves no room for doubt. 

Fourth. The chemical test for nitrites, which are a nearly 
constant accompaniment of ammonia in stale sewage and pol- 
luted waters, and which seem to indicate sewage pollution in a 
comparatively recent past when found in surface waters, shallow 
wells, etc. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 237 

In deep wells nitrites are sometimes found reduced from 
nitrates. The two, ammonia and nitrites, present in the same 
sample at the same time, are, in the great majority of cases, 
sure proof of a degree of contamination which renders the water 
unsafe to drink if not for any domestic use. In the case of 
suspicious samples a confirmatory test by platting for bacteria 
may add conclusiveness, since both these chemical substances 
are the product of bacterial activity and presume upon the imme- 
diate presence of the organisms themselves, except in rare cases 
of rapid and perfect filtration. 

Apparatus. Any uniform glass tubes, usually in the field of 
10 cc, in the laboratory of 100 cc. capacity, 5 inches high to 
the mark, flat bottom. 

Reagents. Most commonly, sulphanilic acid in acetic acid 
and naphthylamine acetate. 

Procedure. Fill the tubes to the mark with clear water 
(decolorized if perceptibly colored, or if turbid. This is ac- 
complished by shaking up with milk of alumina, and filtering). 
Add to 100 cc. 10 cc. of each of the two reagents; the order is 
immaterial. The color develops in five or ten minutes and 
must be observed within twenty, since any room in which gas 
is burned gives an atmosphere carrying nitrites which may 
vitiate the test. Compare the color developed with the two 
standard papers. 

The need for treatment in this test brings the student natu- 
rally to the consideration of the need for clarification or strain- 
ing in other cases, especially before any quantitative estimation 
by depth of color is attempted. 

The class will find that some of the samples need to be treated 
and will now prepare such samples for the next day's examina- 
tion. x\lthough clarification may be effected in a few minutes, 
it is more in accordance with actual practice to allow the treated 
sample to stand several hours in order that the work of sedi- 
mentation shall make less difficult the subsequent filtration. 

Apparatus. Tubes or bottles of any convenient size, but tall 
and narrow in shape. 



238 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Reagents. Coagulants: any substance which will act as a 
dragnet to enclose the large and small particles, clay, and 
organisms, and by the agglomeration cause a subsidence of 
the whole. Such substances are: prepared aluminum hydrate, 
or the same set free in the solution from alum or alum cake, 
or from aluminum electrodes; ferric sulphate; manganese sul- 
phate; copper sulphate, etc. 

These flocculent, gelatinous substances act like the white of 
egg in clearing coffee, agglomerating the finest particles with the 
coarse and dragging the whole to the bottom (unless buoyed up 
by air bubbles). 

Since the changes are very rapid and the temperature of the 
laboratory is above that of a commercial filtration plant, it may 
be necessary to keep the samples in the ice chest or to sterilize 
by chloroform. 

Changes in composition may be hastened by incubating at a 
higher temperature. Preliminary observations and all decisions 
as to clarification and incubation should be made during these 
first two hours exercise in order that the results may have a 
definite meaning. 

Too often the untrained investigator neglects these small 
precautions and finds himself quite at sea in interpreting his 
results, which may seem to be at variance with those of others. 

It is wisest to determine, as near the source as possible, the free 
ammonia by direct Nesslerization, and perhaps by distillation, to 
see what is in an unstable condition, — probably to determine the 
total organic nitrogen, and in some cases the suspended matter, 
by the Gooch crucible or by filtration through paper, — then to 
incubate at 37° C. for 48 hours and repeat the above determina- 
tions and add' what others the case calls for. 

Then the manager may have some idea of what will happen 
as the fluid warms up and passes along through the purification 
system. Samples from a continuously running plant are taken at 
the entrance to see what the machines have to do, as well as at 
the end to see what they have done. Comparability is of the 
utmost importance. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 239 

Direct Nesslerization of sewage is often desirable. The 
worker needs to experiment with the particular combination 
he is dealing with. In a testing laboratory to which fifty kinds 
of sewage are brought no one combination of precipitants has 
been found to work on all, and not only is time lost in the ex- 
periment, but the composition has been changing; therefore 
for quick work on uncertain or unknown samples distillation is 
recommended, while the samples are being otherwise treated. 
With steam, fifteen minutes should suffice for a determination. 

For routine work on a uniform mixture including many samples 
a day the information desired may be more readily gained with 
fewer hands once the details of the direct method have been 
worked out. It must be borne in mind that only in incubated 
or old sewage are the two results nearly comparable. They need 
not be to give valuable information. 

Since treatment takes place usually some hours after collection, 
a second test for change during the interval is most desirable. 
It is a mistake to run a testing laboratory short-handed. During 
the installation and regulating time no variation should escape 
the plotting sheet. After the establishment of the routine, 
fewer hands will serve. 

Careful notes are to be set down of each step as to quantity, 
time, temperature, etc. It is always well to state in the report 
of the day's work, also, what the next steps are to be. For in 
the interim of a day or two days the student will have many 
different things to occupy his mind and it will waste time to 
bring back to memory details of procedure. 

EXERCISE II 

Testing of Strained and Sedimented Products 

First. Note appearances of the cold or chloroformed as well 
as of the incubated samples. 

Record the completeness of sedimentation. 

Second. Determine the quantity of ammonia by direct reading. 
Compare the results obtained from the cold and the incubated. 



240 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Apparatus. Nessler tubes and racks. 

Standards, glasses, platinum-cobalt or ammonium chloride, 
I cc. = .ooooi gram N. 

Reagents. Nessler reagent, copper sulphate, potassium 
hydrate. 

Procedure. There are certain precautions to be taken in 
making the color test for ammonia. Some of the most important 
of these should be observed by the student at this point: 

Only the same dilutions give comparable colors. 

Only the same temperatures give comparable colors. 

The lighter shades are those of pure color and most perfect 
solution. 

The depth of column may be taken as nearly proportional in 
the tints given by 6 cc. or less of the standard solution. 

Since the color is one produced by a reaction in the solution 
with a tendency to precipitation, the once Nesslerized portion 
cannot be diluted, as can a color formed by merely neutralizing 
the acid solvent. 

"Ammonia" may exist, in polluted waters at least, in several 
kinds of combination. One set will give the reaction if treated 
in the cold, another will be broken up by heat, and still another 
by heat and alkali. It is sometimes desirable to know each 
quantity separately. 

FROM REPORT ON STANDARD METHODS 

Free Ammonia by Direct Nesslerization 

Reagents. — i. A lo per cent solution of copper sulphate. 

2. A lo per cent solution of lead acetate. 

3. A 50 per cent solution of sodium or potas- 

sium hydrate. 

4. A 10 per cent solution of magnesium chloride. 
Procedure (i) for Sewage. Fifty cc. of the sample to be 

tested are mixed with an equal volume of water, placed in a 
short Nessler tube and a few drops of copper sulphate solution 
added. After a thorough mixing, one cc. of the potassium hy- 
drate solution is added and the contents are again thoroughly 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 241 

mixed. The tube is then allowed to stand for a few moments, 
when a heavy precipitate should fall to the bottom, leaving a 
colorless supernatant liquid. Nesslerize an aliquot portion of 
this clear liquid. 

Procedure (2) for Sewage. In place of adding copper sul- 
phate to sewages of high magnesium content, it has been found 
that satisfactory clarification and also softening of the sample 
may be obtained by heating it to 40° C. after mixing with the 
caustic alkaH The heat causes the bicarbonate of lime to be 
precipitated and the magnesium to separate as a gelatinous 
precipitate (hydrate). During cooling, the bottle containing 
100 cc. of the sample should be shaken several times to facilitate 
the subsidence of the precipitate. Where samples are low in 
magnesium content this treatment may be accomplished by 
adding a small quantity of magnesium chloride. (Note that 
both heat and alkaH are used. 

Many samples containing hydrogen sulphide require the use 
of lead acetate in addition to the copper, and others require a 
few trials before the right combination of the three solutions to 
bring about the best results can be made, in view of the fact 
that flocculent precipitates absorb varying amounts of ammonia 
from solution under certain conditions, it is recommended that 
the smallest practicable amounts of precipitants be used. 

The amount of nitrogen as free ammonia is computed after 
comparisons with standards in the same manner as in the distil- 
lation procedure. 

EXERCISE III 
Polluted Waters which may or may not need 

TO BE treated 

Definition of 
Characteristics of 
Methods of purification? 
Laboratory tests concerning 
Limits of dilution, how determined? 

There will be so much variation in the samples that this exer- 
cise will test the individuality of the student in devising the best 



242 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

means of applying what he has learned, supplemented by common 
sense and ingenuity in making the materials at hand serve. 
. This problem is one which confronts the young engineer who 
goes to a small town, perhaps, or is employed by a manufacturing 
firm. A report must be made, intelligible to such employers, 
somewhat after the following order: 

Messrs. A. B. & Co. 

Gentlemen: I have examined the sample of water from the 
stream above your factory and which is liable to be used as a 
domestic supply by the operatives. I find it a soft, colored 
water, clear at this season, free from perceptible iron and thus 
eminently suited for laundry use. The sample gave a distinct 
test for free ammonia and nitrites. The presence of several 
thousand bacteria, variety B. coli, confirms the indication of 
contamination with intestinal excretit not far from the place 
of collection; therefore I would recommend (treatment). 

Or if the water is from a well : 

"I have examined the sample of water from the well or 
'spring' used by the families of your employees. It is clear, 
colorless, and cold, with no sediment. It carries, however, ten 
times the normal chlorine of the region and eight times the 
usual nitrates. This, taken with the excess hardness, indicates 
cesspool pollution somewhere along the course of the water 
flow. Just where this occurs is a point to be ascertained, since 
the safe use of the water depends upon the filter between the 
source of pollution and the well. Unless you can give me a 
topographical sketch of the surroundings I must visit the locality 
before giving an opinion." 

Or the problem is often put in this form : 

Mr. X of Y., Vt. 

Dear Sir: I have examined the three samples sent from your 
country estate. I enclose the results with suggestions. A more 
complete analysis, which you may keep for future reference, 
may be desirable for the sample you choose. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 243 

If the sample is brought to the laboratory by the collector, 
the preliminary tests and some of the physical observation, 
possibly a microscopic examination, may be made to save time, 
but the rule will be to begin the tests with the next exercise. 

EXERCISE IV 

Collection and Transportation of Water Samples 

If possible this should be a field excursion, either singly or as 
a class. The proper collection of samples in sterilized bottles 
for bacterial counts should be emphasized. The watchword is 
cleanness. Avoid contact with hands. Collect a fair sample in a 
clean glass vessel. Use a new cork stopper if glass is not available. 
Do not collect in a fruit jar, even if a new one; the rubber ring 
affects the odor. Do not use a milk jar, even if sterilized; the 
food is possibly still in some corner. A stone jug is liable 
to be porous and the earthy odor is apt to persist, masking 
any other. 

The notebook is to record more in detail than there is room 
for on the blank. The slightest observation may prove the 
important link in the chain of evidence. 

Information demanded. 

Method of collection prescribed. 

Time and date of collection noted; time elapsing since. 

Surrounding conditions described, if sample is not collected 
by the analyst. 

In shipping by express, the sealed string over the cloth is to 
insure against any tampering with the sample. Sealing wax 
or paraffine directly on the stopper is not to be tolerated. It 
requires much time and skill and is often impossible to 
remove it so that no tiny speck will drop into the bottle when 
opened. 

If more than twenty-four hours must elapse between collec- 
tion and examination the fact is to be noted. Polluted surface 
waters are those most affected. 



244 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

First. From a Water Tap. The water should run freely 
from the tap or pump for a few minutes before it is collected. 
Instructions for '^^^ bottle is then to be placed directly under the 
Collecting Sam- tap, and rinsed out with water three times, pour- 
pies of Water jng out the water completely each time. It is 
a ysis. ^\^QT^ again to be placed under the tap and filled 
to overflowing, and then a small quantity poured out, so that 
there shall be left an air space under the stopper of about an 
inch. The stopper must be rinsed off with flowing water and 
inserted into the bottle while still wet, and secured by tying over 
it a clean piece of cotton cloth. The ends of string must be 
sealed on the top of the stopper. Under no circumstances must 
the inside of the neck of the bottle or the stem of the stopper 
be touched by the hand or wiped with a cloth. 

Second. From a Spring, Stream, Pond, Reservoir, or Well. 
The bottle and stopper should be rinsed with the water, if this 
can be done without stirring up the sediment on the bottom. 
The bottle, with the stopper in place, should then be entirely 
submerged in the water and the stopper taken out at a distance 
of twelve inches or more below the surface. When the bottle is 
full, the stopper is replaced below the surface, if possible, and 
finally secured as above. It will be found convenient in taking 
samples from a well or from deep water to have the bottle 
weighted, so that it will sink below the surface. The stopper 
may be removed by a separate cord attached to it. It is im- 
portant that the sample should be obtained free from the sedi- 
ment on the bottom of a stream and from the scum on the 
surface. If a stream or spring should not be deep enough to 
admit of this method of taking a sample, the water must be 
dipped up with an absolutely clean vessel and poured into the 
bottle after it has been rinsed. 

The sample of water should be collected immediately before 
shipping by express, so that as little time as possible shall inter- 
vene between the collection of the sample and its examination. 

The accompanying " certificate " must be filled out carefully 
and enclosed in the envelope shipping tag. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 245 

Water must be collected in an absolutely clean glass bottle 
(not stone jug or fruit jar) of at least one quart capacity. The 
stopper, if not of glass, must be a new cork stopper. 

CERTIFICATE 

Accompanying a sample of water, to be enclosed in the addressed 
envelope tag. 



SAMPLE OF WATER 
From 

Name of city or town. 

Collected and sealed by 

Name and address of collector. 



Collected from 

State whether the water is from a tap, or from stream, pond, well, or 



other source. 



Collected on 

Give day, date, and hour of day. 



Give full information with regard to the source of the water, its 
location and surroundings. 



246 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

EXERCISE V 

Examination of Collected Water Sample, presumably a 
Colored or Turbid Surface Water 

Rapid work is required, and the best possible dovetailing of 
measuring, distilling, testing, with times of standing for colors 
to develop, will be needed to make the necessary determination 
in two or three hours of exercise. 

Preliminary observations. Note and record turbidity, organ- 
isms, color. 

Rinse off mouth of bottle; avoid contact of hands. 

Take care of hands. 

Keep mixed, unless the sample is to be tested only after 
filtration or decantation, as in the case of extraneous sand or 
weeds. 

Since ammonia is the most sensitive of all the chemical tests 

and the most liable to change, its determination is 
Ammonia. ^^ ^ • t i <• 1 t . 

usually begun immediately alter the qualitative 

tests, page 235, which should never be omitted, if time is of value. 

Most water samples, in distinction from sewage, contain so 
little ammonia, and at the same time so much other matter 
precipitable by alkaline reagents, that a sharp determination 
cannot be made in the direct test. It takes less time and gives 
surer results to separate the volatile compounds by distillation. 

Apparatus. Distilling flask 750 cc, round bottom, square 
shoulder, closed with perforated, treated rubber or cork stopper; 
condensing tank through which passes the block- tin pipe leading 
from distilling flask to collecting vessel; usually Nessler tubes 
with rack. 

Reagents. Standard ammonium chloride, i cc. = .00001 
gram N, Nessler reagent. 

According to the preliminary test 100 to 500 cc. are placed in 
the distilling flask and heated. If the water is taken below an 
industrial plant, as wire works which deliver to the stream acid 
wastes, the ammonia will not be set free without the addition of an 
ammonia-free alkaline reagent, like ignited sodium carbonate. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 247 

A precaution to be noted is that the gas must be condensed 
in the water vapor. Therefore the condensing tube should be of 
small bore and good conducting power. Block tin is commonly 
employed. 

The ammonia is read by comparison as before, with the 
exception that care must be taken to bring the condensed dis- 
tillate to room temperature to insure accuracy. 

Calculation. Standard = i cc. = o.ooooi gram N. 
Example: 500 cc. water taken. 

First distillate of 50 cc. gives 3. cc. 
Second distillate of 50 cc. gives i. cc. 
Third distillate of 50 cc. gives 0.8 cc. 

Then the water contains .096 part per million N as ammonia. 

By the term '' albuminoid ammonia" is meant that portion of 
nitrogen in a given volume of water which may be Albuminoid 
obtained from the yet undecomposed organic sub- Ammonia, 
stance. This is accomplished by digestion with a given qantity 
of ''alkaline permanganate." 

It was originally supposed to give that portion which is 
now more often based on the increase in putrescibility, that is, 
the unstable compounds. But peaty waters, which are almost 
always nonputrescible, yield large amounts. Therefore the old 
definition does not hold in such cases. In the absence of exact 
methods, it is still used, and if rightly understood, may give 
valuable indications to aid in the interpretation. Ground 
filtered waters should yield less than .050 per million, the best 
less than .010. Clear colored surface waters yield, according to 
the depth of color, .150 to .250. Turbid waters, or those con- 
taining organisms, may go as high as i.ooo without indicating 
danger. Sewage of a strength which gives 20 to 60 parts free 
ammonia yields, perhaps, 5,000 albuminoid ammonia. Trade 
wastes, on the other hand, may give 20 to 60, or more, albuminoid 
ammonia and very low free ammonia. That is, the ratio between 
the free and the albuminoid ammonia is far more instructive 
than the absolute amounts. 



248 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Just as in the case of carbonaceous matter in oxygen consumed, 
the test gives results of value only when carried on under identical 
conditions of volume, amount of reagent added, time of dis- 
tillation, etc. 

For ordinary, soft surface waters like those of the Appalachian 
region, the procedure given below yields very closely one-half 
the amount obtained in the ''Total Nitrogen" or "Kjeldahl" 
test (see page 268). 

Apparatus. The flask containing the residue, 500 less 150 
cc, after the distillation of free ammonia. 

50-cc. graduate. 

Funnel. 

Bottle to serve as stand for funnel, so that the outside may 
not have a trace of the alkaline fluid. 

Reagents. Alkaline permanganate, 40 cc. of which yields 
no ammonia on boiling with redistilled water. 

Note. If the KOH is of first quality, this may be true. It is unwise to try to 
use a permanganate which requires a large correction. 

Procedure. Add 40 cc. through the long-stemmed funnel. 
The heavy liquid will sink to the bottom and unless mixed will 
be liable to start boiling explosively and ruin the determination. 
But since the decomposition begins at once in the still hot liquid, 
the flask must be instantly closed and connected with the col- 
lecting flask to avoid loss. 

The electric heater is best, but if a gas flame is used, place the 
burner so close to the distilling flask as to spread the flame. 

This beginning of boiling must be closely watched, as some 
waters froth excessively After once starting, the operation 
goes on quietly n all but very hard waters. 

In sewage analysis, unless steam distilling is used, 10 cc. of 
the sample is diluted to 500 cc. with ammonia-free water and the 
procedure is as above. 

While distillation is in progress the time may be utilized for 
the previously noted tests for nitrites, odor, color, etc. 

In the majority of cases it is either necessary or desirable 
to know something of the past history of the water, the kind of 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 249 

ground it has passed over or through, the substances it has taken 
up in the course of its progress. Since water is the great solvent, 
it bears with it in all its after course the traces of its defilement, 
and frequently the proofs of its purification. What has once 
happened m.ay happen again. Dr. Brown's classic phrase, 
"What is desired in a drinking water is innocence, not repent- 
ance," and the author's dictum of "chlorine once in the water 
always in the water," render the use of certain tests for the past 
of the water of more or less value, often more. 

As has been elsewhere explained, the geological formation of 
the region is of the utmost value in interpretation. 

Chlorine being soluble in all its common compounds and not 

beinsr set free by any known reaction when in ^, , . 

iM . r 1 . 1 . 1 Chlorine, 

the dilution of drmkmg waters, and, moreover, not 

being wanted by any plant growth, is the best index of the 

degree of previous pollution. 

Sink drains, cesspool sewage, most wastes from manufactories, 
all carry into both streams and ground waters a greater or 
less, but determinable, quantity of chlorine. Barnyards, stable 
drains, and fertilized fields contribute less in proportion to the 
nitrogen per square mile. 

Mr. F. P. Stearns's estimate of one-tenth part per million per 
200 inhabitants has never been disproved. (Mass. S. B. H., 
Vol. I, Part I, p. 680, 1890, special report.) 

Apparatus. Six-inch evaporating dishes are best, since 
the volume and conditions should always be the same. These 
dishes are most convenient, since the titration is made without 
transfer. 

If the solid residue has caked on to the sides, it should be 
loosened by a feather end. Waters carrying 20 to 40 parts per 
million may be titrated directly in 25 cc. 

Reagents. Neutral potassium chroma te freed from chlorides. 

Sodium chloride, i cc. = .001 CI. 

Silver nitrate; for routine work i cc. = .0005 is best. 

For sewage, trade wastes or salt waters, a stronger solution 
may be desirable. 



250 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Procedure. Most surface waters require decolorization and 
concentration before the test can be made with required accu- 
racy. Wherever isochlors, Hnes of normal chlorine, have been 
estabhshed (see map) this determination has the utmost value. 
There are places where the presence of salt springs and the 
proximity of the sea (by a few yards) or the presence of old 
geological formations in deep deposits, mine drainage, etc., cause 
this determination to lose most of its value, but comparatively 
small areas are thus excluded. 

Nitrates, the other telltale of past misdemeanors, is less 

stable than chlorine because of its tendency to be decomposed 

by organisms and to be used as food by green 

plants. Its compounds are also soluble and are 

carried long distances. 

In Archaean regions, the nitrate content of the soil (see p. ii8) 
is that of the rain water minus the loss by decomposition. 

As a result of many thousands of determinations, the residuum 
is not over .4, and usually not over .1 N per million. In such 
regions i.o part is proof of some sort of previous pollution. 

In the waters seeping through the deep prairie soil the nitrates 
may be prehistoric and so without present sanitary significance, 
but all the same they do indicate past conditions of living animal 
activity just as do the guano deposits. 

Apparatus. 3-inch dishes, 10 to 100 cc. tubes, warm plate or 
water bath. 

Reagents. Phenol disulphonic acid, KOH, standard nitrate 
solution .000001 gram N per cc. 

Procedure. Precaution: the presence of high chlorine viti- 
ates the test; overcome this by removing the chlorine or by 
dilution. 

See Standard Methods, Thresh, etc., for other tests. 

Brucine, for field work, is sometimes made use of. 

The test is not at present capable of as great accuracy as 
that for ammonia, for instance, because of loss on evaporation. 

In some laboratories there is still used the old method of re- 
ducing the nitrates to ammonia. Metallic Zinc in acid solution 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 251 

yields nascent hydrogen, a powerful reducing agent. If nitrates 
are present, ammonia is formed. Zinc coated with freshly 
precipitated copper is an excellent and quickly acting agent 
(Thresh, p. 200-202). Sodium amalgam and aluminum zinc in 
alkali solution, also give hydrogen at slower rate. 

The experience of this laboratory has been that there is 
httle uniformity of action in every variety of liquids, so that one 
has no guarantee that the nitrogen existing as nitrates will in 
an unknown sample appear wholly as ammonia. Some may 
escape as N, as NO2 or some other compound. Also some 
undecomposed organic matter may change and add to the 
result nitrogen which was not derived from nitrates. The Crum 
method of reduction to nitrogen gas appears the most scientific 
but the most costly in time and apparatus. 

These methods are adapted to clear waters high in nitrates 
and free from organic matter. 

Since the actual amount of nitrate varies in a changing fluid 
from hour to hour, it seems hardly a wise use of time to make 
attempts to gain great accuracy ; only in certain cases is anything 
more than a close approximation desirable. 

EXERCISE VI 

Examination or Water Sample {Continued) 

Limits of purification by dilution often require the determina- 
tion of the air the fish breathes, in other words the free oxygen 
dissolved in the water. The samples for this test 
are collected in the field by any means which will n-ssoi d 
insure complete replacement of the air in the col- 
lecting bottle, by carbon d"oxide for instance, or by water which 
may then be completely replaced by the sample desired. 

From the laboratory tap from a large sample or tank the 
collection is made in an accurately calibrated, perfectly stop- 
pered bottle of any convenient capacity (30 cc. is sufficient for 
field work) by passing the end of the delivery tube to the very 
bottom of the bottle, allowing the water to rise and overflow 



252 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

for two minutes until the volume has been changed six or eight 
times. For laboratory experiment as to the rapidity with which 
a given polluted water or waste robs a water of its oxygen, 
several mixtures may be made of varying dilution in two or 
three tall bottles. After standing the required time, twenty- 
four, thirty-six, or forty-eight hours as the case may be, a 
sample may be siphoned into the calibrated bottle as above 
described. 

Apparatus. Two mounted burettes with long narrow de- 
livery tubes, or for field work. Two pipettes, small bore, 
delivering 2 cc. One 5-cc. burette pipette. 

Titrating flask, 400 cc. capacity. 

Reagents. Manganese sulphate, 120 grams in a quarter 
liter. 

Potassium hydrate, 90 grams; and sodium iodide, 25 grams, in 
a quarter liter. 

Starch solution. 

Procedure. Remove the stopper cautiously from the filled 
calibrated bottle, deliver 2 cc. approximately in the bottom 
layer of the manganese sulphate, withdrawing the delivery tube 
quickly so as not to leave any solution in the upper layer. This 
is an easy matter with the finger on the pipette tube. 

With the other pipette or from the other burette add 2 cc. of 
the KI, KOH solution, also just above the bottom layer but not 
directly on the bottom of the bottle where the white manganous 
oxide is liable to form an adhesive layer. Close the bottle so 
as not to entangle the smallest bubble of air hold the stopper 
in firmly and invert the bottle, tip it back and forth until the 
precipitated spongy mass has swept the confined Kquid free 
from the last particle of air. Allow to settle so that the removal 
of the stopper to admit the solvent sulphuric acid will not 
expose the manganese precipitate to air, add 4 o^ 5 cc. of H2SO4, 
stopper and mix. When solution is complete a few black particles 
may be disregarded. Transfer without loss to the titrating flask, 
add thiosulphate until a straw-yellow color only remains; only 
then add the starch solution to mark a sharp end point. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 253 

Oxygen Dissolved — From Report on Standard Methods 

3. Sulphuric acid. Specific gravity 1.4 (dilution 1:1). 

4. Sodium thiosulphate solution. Dissolve 6.2 grams of 

chemically pure recrystaliized sodium thiosulphate in one liter 

■ . . N . 

of distilled water. This gives an — solution, each cubic centi- 

40 

meter of which is equivalent to .0002 gram of oxygen or 0.1395 cc. 

of oxygen at 0° C. and 760 mm. pressure. Inasmuch as this 

solution is not permanent, it should be standardized occasion- 

N . 

ally against an — solution of potassium bichromate as described 
40 

in almost any work on volumetric analysis. The keeping qual- 
ities of the thiosulphate solution are improved by adding to each 
liter 5 cc. of chloroform and 1.5 grams of ammonium carbonate 
before making up to the prescribed volume. 

Calculation of Results. The standard method of expressing 
results shall be by parts per million of oxygen by weight. 

It is sometimes convenient to know the number of cc. of the 
gas per liter at 0° C. temperature and 760 mm. pressure, and also 
to know what percentage the amount of gas present is of the 
maximum amount capable of being dissolved by distilled water at 
the same temperature and pressure. All three methods of calcu- 
lation are therefore here given: 

^ . , .„. 0.0002 N X 1,000,000 200 N 
Oxygen m parts per million = — -^ = — — — , 

^ . ,.^ 0.1395NX1000 130.5 N 
Oxygen m cc. per hter = — ^^ = ^^^ — , 

^ . ^ r ^ ^- 200 N X 100 20,000 N 

Oxygen m per cent of saturation = — — — — = — , 

N 
where N = number of cc. of — thiosulphate solution, 

40 
V = capacity of the bottle in cc. less the volume of the 

manganous sulphate and potassium iodide solution 

added (i.e., less four cc). 

= the amount of oxygen in parts per milHon in water 

saturated at the same temperature and pressure. 



254 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



Quantities of Dissolved Oxygen in Parts per Million 

BY Weight in Water Saturated with Air 

AT THE Temperature Given 



Temp. C. 


Oxygen. 


Temp. C. 


Oxygen. 


Temp. C. 


Oxygen. 


Temp. C. 


Oxygen. 


O 

I 
2 

3 
4 
5 
6 

7 


14.70 
14.28 
13-88 
13 50 
13-14 
12.80 
12.47 
12.16 


8 

9 
10 
II 
12 
13 
14 
15 


11.86 
11.58 
II. 31 
11.05 
10.80 
10.57 
10.35 
10. 14 


16 

17 
18 

19 

20 
21 
22 
23 


9-94 
9-75 
956 
9-37 
9.19 
9.01 
8.84 
8.67 


24 
25 
26 
27 
28 
29 
30 


8.51 
8.35 
8.19 
8.03 
7.88 

7-74 
7.60 







N 
Reagent. Standard — solution of sodium carbonate. Dis- 

22 

solve 2.40 grams of dry sodium carbonate in one liter of distilled 
water which has been freed from carbonic acid 

ree ar onic -^ cautious addition of dilute solution of sodium 
Acid. -^ 

carbonate. Add five cc. of phenolphthalein indi- 
cator (7 grams in a liter) to the distilled water before neutraliz- 
ing and measuring. Preserve this solution in bottles of resistant 
glass, protected from the air by tubes filled with soda lime. 
One cc. equals o.ooi gram of CO2. 

Procedure. Measure 100 cc. of the sample into a tall, nar- 
row vessel, preferably a loo-cc. Nessler tube, and titrate rapidly 

N 
with the — ■ sodium carbonate solution, stirring gently until a 
22 

faint but permanent pink color is produced. 

N 
The number of cc. of — sodium carbonate solution used in 

22 

titrating 100 cc. of water, multiplied by 10, gives the parts per 
million of free carbonic acid as CO2. 

Owing to the ease with which free carbonic acid escapes from 
water, particularly when present in considerable quantities, it is 
highly desirable that a special sample should be collected for this 
determination, which should preferably be made on the spot. 
If the analysis cannot be made on the spot, approximate results 



LABOR.\TORY EXERCISES 255 

from water not high in free carbonic acid may be obtained from 
samples collected in bottles which are completely filled so as to 
leave no air space under the stopper. 

EXERCISE VII 

Examination of Collected Sample Completed 

Blank form to be filled out with all the tests that promise 
any help, however slight, in the completion of the diagnosis of 
the case for the prosecution; for it is the sum total and not any 
one special thing which determines the sentence in ninety out 
of one hundred examples. 

Sanitary Water Analysis 
Parts per 1,000,000 



Address for report 




Locality 




Date 




Description of Water 




f Turbiditv 




Sediment 


Physical 


Color 


Examination 


Cold 




Odor Hot 




Free Ammonia 




Albuminoid Ammonia 


Chemical 


Nitrites 


Examination 


Nitrates 




Hardness 










Remarks 




Solids 




Amount taken 




Weight of Dish and residue 




Weight of Dish 




Weight after ignition 


Total 


Sulphates 


Loss 


Oxygen Consumed 




Iron 







256 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

In cases where comparisons are to be made of the same water 
at different times, or of different waters for the same purpose, 
or of filter effluents for completeness of removal of organic 
matter, the carbonaceous content or " organic matter " is of 
consequence. 

Oxygen Consumed, or carbonaceous matter. This test of the 
quaHty of water dates back to the early efforts of chemists to 
account for the deleterious effects of some waters. 
, At that time the ideal standard was the clear, cold, 

colorless, sparkHng water from a bubbling spring. 
The greatest departure from that ideal was most suspicious. 
Therefore, color, turbidity, and organic matter in solution were 
looked upon with disfavor. Before means of distinguishing 
between harmful and harmless substances were known, the 
quantity of such substances as would burn out of the solid 
residue, or such as would take oxygen from potassium per- 
manganate, was held to be a measure of the deleteriousness 
of the water. The habit of all primitive peoples has been to 
use streams as laundry tubs, following the practice of birds 
and beasts the world over. 

All surface-flowing waters do carry organic, i.e. carbonaceous, 
substances in solution, and soft water, in wooded or cultivated 
regions, carries the brown coloring matter derived from leaves, 
peat, humus, etc. Streams may also carry refuse from manu- 
factories, city sewage, etc. 

The carbon in these extraneous substances is partly in such 
condition that it will unite with nascent oxygen set free from 
potassium permanganate in acid solution. If it were all in such 
state, the chemist's task would be easy. The quantity, however, 
varies with the substance, the degree of decomposition it has 
already reached, the concentration of the chemicals, and the 
temperature used. 

So many variables are difficult of estimation, and as gi\ang 
a decisive estimate of the quaHty of a single sample of water the 
test has little value. On the other hand, if a continuous series 
of tests is to be made on a given water or a comparison to be 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 257 

made of several waters for a considerable time, the determination 
may give most valuable results. For instance, a filter should 
reduce all organic content to a marked degree. Comparison of 
conditions before and after filtration is then most instructive, 
often conclusive. 

The chemist may gain valuable confirmatory evidence from 
the quantity of oxygen consumed by a given water, but he may 
not rely upon it alone, as was at one time thought possible. 
Forchammer in 1849 proposed the process, but it was Dr. Tidy, 
chemist of the Rivers Pollution Commission, who in 1879 ex- 
tended the scope, so that his name is most frequently connected 
with it. 

Apparatus. Flasks, 300 cc, flat bottom. Electric steam 
bath. Standard reagent burettes. 

Reagents. H2SO4 (1:3); potassium permanganate; i cc. = 
.0001 gram oxygen; oxalate i cc. = .0001 oxygen. 

Procedure. The EngHsh custom was to put away a measured 
portion, with the reagents cold, for varying times, as one hour, 
four hours, twelve hours, or twenty-four hours. 

The speed of reaction indicated the quahty of the water. 
This plan has not been found of special value for American 
waters. The quicker methods appeal to our chemists, and the 
German modification, or Kubel hot acid process, has found most 
favor, the heating to continue 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 
or half an hour according to circumstances. Little importance 
is attached to the actual figures, and it is as a control in continuous 
work — often a valuable one — that it is chiefly used. 

Under these conditions each laboratory has its own practice, 
and standard methods for the whole country are hardly desirable, 
since colored waters and turbid waters give in any case non- 
comparable results. 

For students' practice, the two-minute boiling serves as well 
as longer, more precise treatment requiring several precautions. 
These are discussed in " Standard Methods." 

Directions. Measure 100 cc. of the water into a 250-cc. 
flat-bottomed flask, add 10 cc. of sulphuric acid (i : 3) and about 



258 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

10 cc. of the potassium permanganate. Place the flask on wire 
gauze and heat it quickly to boiling. Boil the solution for exactly 
two minutes; remove it from the flame; let it cool one minute, and 
add 10 cc. of the ammonium oxalate. Titrate with the per- 
manganate to a faint permanent pink color. Each cc. of the 
exact permanganate used in excess of the oxalate solution used 
represents o.oooi gram of oxygen consumed by the sample. 

Note. For highly colored surface waters 25 cc. are taken and diluted to 100 cc. 
with water free from organic matter; for sewage 10 cc. are diluted in the same way. 

The oxygen given up by the permanganate combines with the 
carbon of the organic matter and perhaps to a certain extent 
with the hydrogen, but not with the nitrogen. The amount of 
oxygen consumed bears some relation, therefore, to the amount 
of organic carbon present in the water, but this relation certainly 
cannot be taken as a definite one in every case, the results 
varying even with the time of boiling. The method has its 
greatest value when it is used to compare waters of the same 
general character and having the same origin, for example in 
making periodical tests of the purity of the effluent from a filter. 
Furthermore, in order that the results shall have this comparative 
value, it is absolutely necessary that the process shal always be 
carried out in exactly the same way^ even to the minutest detail 
of quantity, time, and temperature. 

In some cases it may be found advantageous to heat the solu- 
tion upon the water bath for half an hour instead of boiling it 
for five minutes. The results, however, will not be exactly com- 
parable with those obtained by boiling. 

Since the solution of permanganate does not hold its strength, 
especially if exposed to the light, it is necessary to determine 
its value not only when made up but every day or two. A 
'^ blank" determination is made by adding less than 10 cc, 
7 or 8 cc, to 100 cc of double-distilled water, using the same 
measure of acid and the same time of boiling as in the sample 
to be tested. Ten cc of ammonium oxalate should decolorize 
to a colorless liquid, and titration to the faint pink color will give 
the value of the permanganate in terms of the correct oxalate. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 259 

This must not be relied on for many weeks, although it keeps its 
strength better than oxalic acid. If a brown precipitate appears 
before or after adding the oxalate it is probable that the measure 
of sulphuric acid has been omitted. The value given by the 
^' blank" should serve for two or three days' work. The time 
may be prolonged by keeping the solutions in the dark. 

Different kinds of organic matter behave differently with various 
oxidizing agents, so that a comparison of the results obtained with 
different oxidizing agents may throw light upon the character of 
the organic matter as well as its amount. In waters from the 
watersheds of eastern North America the color and the oxygen 
consumed have a certain though somewhat varying relation. 
See pp. 124-125. 

Color in surface waters is due to vegetable extract, reddish 
brown to light straw yellow according to strength of solution and, 
in a degree, to age of leaves (early fall or late 
spring) and to kind of leaves; pine needles give 
very little color. This color is read as ammonia standard 
colors, as platinum standards, or with the colored glasses of the 
Lovibond Tintometer, and recorded on the blank. 

Just as the engineer runs a base line to give datum hues for 
future operations, so the analyst sometimes needs to complete 
tests for reference in case of subsequent changes of conditions. 

In cases of the installation of a new supply for a town or a 
country residence the determination of total soHd x t l S I'd 
matter is of use. 

For comparison of two or more waters, of the same water in 
different years, and especially for information regarding progres- 
sive pollution, the test may be important. 

Apparatus. Platinum dishes, 150 to 200 cc. capacity. 

Reagents. None. 

Procedure. Ignite and weigh a platinum dish. Measure 
into it 100 cc. of the water (200 cc. in the case of surface waters) 
and evaporate to dryness on the water bath. When the water 
is all evaporated, heat the dish in the oven at the temperature of 
boiling water for two hours, then let it remain in a desiccator 



26o CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

over sulphuric acid for several hours and weigh. The increase 
in weight gives the " total solids," or " residue on evaporation." 
If from a ground water, save the residue for the determination 
of the iron. 

In the case of surface waters the residue should be ignited and 
the loss on ignition noted. Heat the dish in a '^ radiator," 
Loss on which consists of another platinum dish enough 

Ignition. larger to allow an air space of about half an inch 

between the two dishes, the inner dish being supported by a 
triangle of platinum wire. Over the inner dish is suspended a 
disk of platinum foil to radiate back the heat into the dish. The 
larger platinum dish is heated to bright redness by a triple gas 
burner. Heat the dish in the radiator until the residue is white 
or nearly so. Note any blackening or charring of the residue 
and any peculiar " burnt odor " which may be given off. After 
the dish has cooled, slightly moisten the residue with a few drops 
of distilled water to secure weighing under the same conditions. 
Heat the residue in the oven for half an hour; cool in a desiccator 
and weigh. This gives the weight of ''fixed solids," the difference 
being the ''loss on ignition." Surface waters carrying much 
mud or other suspended matter are often filtered. The differ- 
ence gives the suspended matter removed by passing through 
filter paper. For the use of the Gooch crucible see Exercise 
X, p. 267. 

Before the introduction of modern methods of water analysis 
the determination of " loss on ignition " was the only method 
for the estimation of organic matter in water. In order, how- 
ever, that the determination shall possess any real value, it is 
necessary to regulate carefully the heat during the ignition, so 
as to destroy the organic matter without decomposing calcium 
carbonate or volatilizing the alkali chlorides. 

This is what the use of the radiator is intended to acccomplish, 
and in the case of surface waters with low mineral content 
and considerable organic matter the method gives generally 
satisfactory results. But in the case of ground waters having 
little or no organic matter and high mineral content the loss is 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 26 1 

often very great on account of the decomposition of nitrates 
and chlorides of the alkahne earths and the loss of water of crys- 
tallization. In waters of this class the determination of '4oss 
on ignition " is, therefore, generally meaningless, although an 
approximation to the amount of organic matter can be obtained 
by the addition of sodium carbonate to the water before evapo- 
rating to dryness. By this means the alkaline earths are pre- 
cipitated as carbonates, the chlorine and nitric acid are held by 
an alkaline base, and there is no water of crystallization in the 
residue. Even with this modification the loss is considerable 
when magnesium salts are present, owing to the loss of carbonic 
acid. 

The behavior on ignition is oftentimes significant. On evapora- 
tion to dryness, swampy or peaty waters give a brownish residue 
which blackens or chars, and this black substance burns off quite 
slowly. The odor of the charring is like that of charring wood 
or grain; sometimes sweetish, but not at all offensive. Waters 
much polluted by sewage blacken slightly; the black particles 
burn off quickly and the odor is disagreeable. Any observations 
on this point should be recorded in the report under the heading 
'' Change on Ignition." 

The residue may be utilized for sulphates or iron. 

Iron, while not serious from a sanitary point of view, is of 
considerable consequence in considering a domestic 
supply which includes laundry. 

Apparatus. Platinum dish from total soHds determination, 
or No. 4 porcelain dish, loo-cc. Nessler tubes. 

Reagents. HCl (1:1). Potassium sulphocyanate solution. 
Standard iron solution, i cc. = .00001 gram Fe. (This dilute 
standard is best for general use.) 

Procedure. Evaporate 100 or 200 cc. of water to dryness in 
a platinum dish. (The weighed residue from the determination 
of total sohds may be used if desired.) Treat the residue with 
5 cc. of hydrochloric acid (i : i), being careful to carry the 
acid to the edge of the dish. In some cases it may be necessary 
to heat the dish gently on the water bath in order to bring all the 



262 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

iron into solution. When all is dissolved with the exception of 
silica, rinse the solution into a loo-cc. tube and make it up to 
about 50 cc. with distilled water. Add a solution of potassium 
permanganate drop by drop until the solution remains pink for 
ten minutes. 

Meanwhile prepare a blank standard with 50 cc. of distilled 
water and about a cubic centimeter of hydrochloric acid. Add 
15 cc. of potassium sulphocyanate solution to the water and to 
the blank standard. Add the standard iron solution, in small 
quantities, .02 cc. if necessary, from a capillary pipette, mixing 
thoroughly by pouring the solution back and forth from one tube 
to another after each addition, until the color of the standard 
matches that of the water. 

In the case of some river waters it will be found necessary to 
add a few cubic centimeters of hydrochloric acid to the water 
while evaporating, in order to facilitate the solution of the iron. 
This should be done on a separate portion from that used for 
the determination of total solids. 

The colors should be matched immediately after adding the 
sulphocyanate, since the color fades appreciably on standing. 
The highest standard should not contain more than 20 cc. of the 
iron solution, since the color then becomes too deep for accurate 
comparison. 

EXERCISE VIII 

Ground and Surface Waters and Mixture of the Two. 
Interpretation of Published Results 

It is not infrequently of importance to ascertain the character 
of a water, especially a lake, as to its probable behavior when 
used as a reservoir, probabiHty of algae growths, or of develop- 
ment of other organisms, many of which give disagreeable odors 
or clog pipes. 

There is a technique of interpretation as of laboratory work, 
and the engineer is more often called upon to interpret the 
results of the chemist than to make his own determinations. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 



263 



Some examples of interesting results are given for the student's 
practice in reading the figures and terms used by the technical 
chemist. 



Sanitary Water Analysis 
Parts in 1,000,000 



Locality, state. 


Physical. 


Residue 
on Evapo- 
ration, 
total. 


Nitrates as 


Color. 


Sedi- 
ment. 


Albuminoid 

ammonia, 

total. 


Free 

Ammonia. 


Nitrites. 


Nitrates. 


1 Unknown 

2 R.I. 

3 N.Y. 

4 Mass. 

5 Mass. 






IIO.O 

33-0 

46.7 


.200 
.010 
.016 

.478 

.194 


.040 
.000 
.010 

.000 

.026 









•25 
•52 





cons, 
green 




.000 
.000 

.000 

.001 


.850 
.000 
.Oil 



Oxygen 
Consumed. 


Hardness. 


Chlorine. 


Iron. 


Incrusting 
Constituents. 


Alkalinity. 


Bacteria 
per c.c. 


1 

2 . 100 

3 -300 

4 6.000 

5 5-300 




20. 
30. 


2.0 








71.0 

109.0 

II. 

4.0 
















I. I 
II. 9 



























No. I does not give data enough upon which to base an 
opinion. Number 2 cannot be rightly interpreted without ni- 
trates, No. 3 without chlorine, etc. 

In No. 4 the high albuminoid ammonia is explained only 
by the presence of the great amount of green algae, which are 
harmless. 

In No. 5 the chlorine by nearness to the sea. 

In some complicated cases the whole 20 determinations taken 
together are necessary for a correct interpretation. 

The expert has to interpret human nature as well as his results. 
Even if he visits a place, he may not find out at first all the 
conditions. 

The water from a farm school well was found to be very of- 
fensive in odor and to give a high quantity of free ammonia but 



264 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

with normal chlorine, no nitrates, and little nitrites. The pre- 
sumption was that something had fallen into the well which 
was blasted out of the ledge. Directions were given to have the 
well cleaned out. The laboratory force were astonished one day 
by the appearance of the caretaker and his wife bearing a wooden 
pail half full of dead angleworms. They seemed very incredu- 
lous when they were told that there was cause for an even worse 
condition of the water. They said, " That could not make any 
difference, could it ? " 

Sickness having broken out in the neighborhood of a min- 
ing town which was considered a model of such settlements, 
the wells were tested, and the only one showing evidence of 
previous pollution was that at the hospital. For weeks it 
remained a mystery, until one man recalled the fact that a few 
years before, an old cesspool had been filled in and a well 
dug within a few feet of the spot. 

EXERCISE IX 

Examination of Sample from the Student's Home Town 

OR FROM A Summer Home to Serve as a Review 

AND Fixation of Routine Procedure 

The very best possible training for the class will be for two or 
three to go out on an investigating trip and collect several samples 
under noted conditions representing several different qualities 
of water; for instance, a small lake with the streams tributary 
to it and the outlet, a well or two, or a drain from a barn or 
sewage field. 

The rest of the class may make the tests and draw their own 
conclusions, and then in a round-table discussion bring out their 
various opinions and have them checked up by the observation 
of those who have been on the spot. 

It may be necessary for a second squad to go out and com- 
plete the observations which the first are obliged to confess 
ignorance of. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 265 

In some way a close connection must be made between the 
laboratory and the field. 

EXERCISE X 

Sewage Analysis in a Water Labor.\tory 

A testing laboratory is Kable to be confronted with various 
problems. The methods to be used and the extent of the work 
to be done will depend upon the information desired. 

These methods would be modified for a control station doing 
only sewage work. 

If it is merely a comparison of the composition of the given 
sample with some other, then the tests must be as comparable as 
is possible. 

If the engineer is to devise a method of treatment, then it 
depends upon the completeness of clarification or of purifica- 
tion demanded. Unnecessary work is not to be recommended, 
but neither should treatment fail because a few results are 
lacking. 

Whatever the process, the fact that the fluid is extremely 
unstable is always to be borne in mind^ and also that increase of 
temperature causes rapid change. Therefore the sample is to 
be tested for certain things at once or the fluid must be guarded 
from change. Or, if the process is to be apphed to the stale 
material, the laboratory sample should be incubated to cause the 
hastening of the change. 

Many a wefl-laid plan has failed of giving satisfaction because 
of the neglect of well-established chemical principles. Here is 
where the engineer may be glad of his chemistry. 

There can hardly be an "average " sample, for the content of 
a sewer is of an extremely miscellaneous character, — orange 
peel to dishcloth, grease from the kitchen and acid from the 
laboratory, varying every hour and every day in the week. 

Sewage Sampling. Just as in mining schemes trouble has 
come from willful or ignorant misrepresentation of the samples 
tested, so, all unwittingly, a purification process for dirty water 



266 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

may be devised on samples which may not represent the usual 
flow. Again, what is to be considered the usual sewage? On 
Mondays it carries more soap and grease; on Saturdays more 
yeast and starch; on Sundays more bathroom waste, i.e., more 
dilute and less factory wastes. 

The investigator needs close contact with the daily conditions, 
and the unpleasantness should not deter him from knowing the 
details. He needs a general knowledge of what he is Hable to 
find. Specialized knowledge is not expected of the student. 

The wide range in composition may be stated as follows: 
solid residue on evaporation, 150 to 1050 parts in a million. Of 
this there is lost on ignition (supposedly organic matter) 40 to 
400 parts; carbonaceous matter, or oxygen consumed, will be 30 
to 300 parts; albuminoid ammonia from 5 to 15 parts (except in 
trade wastes, where it may be 100 times as much). 

The already broken up substances may give ''free ammonia " 
ioto5o parts; nitrites, .0 to .300; nitrates, .0 to .900. The chlorine 
increment over the city supply may be 30 to 150 parts in town 
sewage. Trade wastes may give more or less. Where salt water 
is used for street watering and the street drains discharge into 
the sewers, the chlorine may be high. 

I. Kinds of Sewage. Analysis for Strength 

This test is often needed in order to determine the amount and 
character of the pollution of a stream to be investigated. It 
should be borne in mind that one sample is not sufficient to give 
a base line. Abnormal as well as diurnal variations are to be 
allowed for. 

I. Determination of total solids or residue on evaporation. 10 
to 100 cc, according to apparent strength, are evaporated in a 
previously weighed platinum dish, to which is added 5 cc. of 
sodium carbonate of known strength. This is used for the pur- 
pose of changing the probable calcium nitrates, or magnesium 
sulphates, or other substances containing water of crystalliza- 
tion, into anhydrous residues. The known weight of sodium 
carbonate is subtracted from the total. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 267 

The sampling of unfiltered sewage requires care. If time is 
not of prime importance, the larger sample is safer. 50 cc. 
as a rule gives good results. In measuring 10 cc, clots are apt 
to pass into one measure and not into another. 

After thorough drying — one hour at least in the oven — 
weigh. Ignite in the radiator; weigh. 

Record, also, the composition of the town supply. 

The residue may be used for tests, i.e., sulphates, phosphates, 
iron, etc. 

Filtered samples are to be treated in the same manner, the 
difference being recorded as suspended matter. Or the latter 
may be determined directly in a Gooch crucible. 

The Columbus, Ohio, Method for the Determination of the 

Total and Volatile Suspended Matter by the 

Gooch Crucible 

Asbestos adapted for use in the Gooch crucible may be readily 
prepared from the granular commercial product by digestion on 
a water bath in strong hydrochloric acid for several hours. 

Prepare a dilute cream of the washed asbestos, which must be 
free from coarse particles, attach the crucible to the filter flask 
in the usual manner, start the suction, and form a mat about 
tV inch thick upon the bottom of the crucible. After the asbestos 
has drained completely, apply to the crucible a small quantity 
of distilled water. If the mat is of the correct thickness, the 
distilled water will pass through the filter at the rate of about 
50 drops per minute. Place the crucible in an oven at 110° to 120° 
C. for fifteen minutes; remove and ignite in a radiator for five 
minutes; cool in a desiccator and weigh. 

From the well-mixed sample measure 50 to 100 cc, decanting 
into the crucible as great an amount as possible of the superna- 
tant water before the main portion of the suspended matter is 
appHed thereto; in this way the filtration will be more rapidly 
accompHshed. When the filtration is completed, rinse out the 
flask with about 15 cc of distilled water. To guard against 
imperfect filtration, it is advisable to apply the suction grad- 



268 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

ually. In case the filtrates are cloudy, they must be refiltered 
until clear. 

The crucible is dried at iio° to 120° C. for one hour, cooled in 
a desiccator and weighed, the increase in weight representing the 
total suspended matter in the samp e. To obtain the volatile 
suspended matter, the weighed crucible is ignited in the radiator 
at a low red heat for ten minutes, or to constant weight. 

Removal of Mat. To prepare the crucibles for further use, 
remove the mat, rinse well in tap water, and finally with distilled 
water, making sure that the perforations in the bottom of the 
crucibles are not clogged." 

2. Estimation of the nitrogenous organic matter remaining 
in the sample to be tested, whether unfiltered, filtered, or clarified, 
is an oftentimes useful test. 

Total organic nitrogen by the Kjeldahl method. The simplest 
T f Tsr-tr procedure, taking the least time, is necessary for a 
* class exercise. 

Measure 25 to 100 cc. into a round-bottomed flask. Add 
250 cc. of ammonia-free distilled water; concentrate to half the 
volume; cool; add 10 cc. nitrogen free H2SO4 and digest under 
the hood until the white fumes begin to come off. Then place a 
small funnel in the mouth of the flask to condense the H2SO4. 
Digest until the Kquid is colorless or has only a faint tinge of 
straw color. 

It is more convenient (and some authorities hold the belief 
that more intelligible results are thus gained) to add the 10 cc. of 
H2SO4 directly to the sample as measured into the flask and 
digest as before. This method retains the '' free ammonia," 
which must be found and subtracted from the result. It avoids 
the dilution and expulsion of ammonia in the sample and so 
hastens the operation. Some think it avoids the loss of some 
nitrogenous substances on boiling. 

The colorless or straw-yellow acid liquid is now cautiously 
diluted with ammonia-free water, rinsed into a 250-cc. flask 
made up to the mark, mixed thoroughly, and an aliquot part, 
usually 25 cc. or .1 the amount, added to 250 cc. of ammonia- 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 269 

free water in the usual distilling flask. The ammonia formed 
from the organic nitrogen during the process is set free by the 
addition of 40 cc. of the alkaline permanganate solution, or of 
a specially prepared solution containing only enough perman- 
ganate to insure the absence from the reagent of any decompos- 
able organic substance. 

Quick work is required n this part of the process to prevent 
loss of the ammonia set free. 

150 cc. are distilled from the volume into a 200-cc. flask and 
50 cc. Nesslerized. 

3. While the two long processes — evaporation for the soHds 
and digestion for nitrogen — are going on, consumed oxygen 
may be determined. This is another indeterminate process 
(see previous notes), but one which may give valuable aid in the 
final summing up. 

4. Chlorine may be determined by direct titration of 25 cc. 
Some samples may be acid and must be made neutral with dilute 
sodium carbonate solution. Some samples must be clarified by 
shaking up with milk of alumina. 

II. Kinds of Sewage. Analysis with Reference to Disposal 

Determine, in addition to the above, 

1. Free and albuminoid ammonia, 

2. Nitrites, 

3. Nitrates, 

4. Hardness. 

5. H2S. 

Put away samples for putrescibility on incubation. 
Tests with reference to 
Removal of suspended matter. 
Laws of settling particles. 
Sedimentation. 

Coagulation and subsequent sedimentation. 
Agitation to remove adhering gas bubbles. 
Shock to separate. 
Electricity for dust and for suspended particles. 



270 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Time is usually essential, but if it is to be eliminated, then force 
is used. But force soon clogs the strainer, from the gelatinous 
nature of the substance to be removed. 

The greater use of prev"ous coagulation and sedimentation 
demands a closer study of the chemical changes consequent 
upon them. 

Given a subsidence reservoir, which is two-thirds drawn off 
each day, in a month's time there will be a considerable collec- 
tion of the coagulant and its precipitated ally. 

How will the inevitable decay affect the supernatant liquid? 

What substance will be added to the water? 

Far more important than mere quantity is the character. 
Sand and chemical products take care of themselves. It is the 
gelatinous portion of slow decomposition that gives the most 
trouble. 

III. Kind of Sewage. Analysis with Reference to Treatment. 

Tests for 

1. Acidity. 

2. Starch and sugar content, which soon yields acidity. 

3. Presence of antiseptics. 

p, . f ^ colloids on surface. 

( fine particles (clay) in sand. 

5. Quantity and kind of coagulant. 

6. Lowest safe limits of dilution. 

Indication of the amount of suspended matter to be dealt with 
on the filter. 

The test for putrescibility is made in different ways, two of 
which will be described. The first is called the odor test. In 
this method an average sample of the efHuent, contained in a 
bottle which is completely filled and tightly stopped, is placed 
where the temperature can be maintained practically constant 
at37°C. (orgS^F.). 

At the end of forty-eight hours the stopper should be removed 
and a test made for odor. If the sample gives off no offensive 
odor, and is not blackened, a non-putrescible effiuent is indicated. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 271 

If the odor is slight and disappears almost immediately upon 
removing the stopper the results are questionable. If the 
sample has blackened and gives off foul odors, the sample is 
putrescible and the degree of purification is unsatisfactory. 
In case it is not convenient to maintain a temperature of 98° F., 
the same result may be obtained by keeping the sample at a 
temperature of 68° F., but twice as long a time should be allowed 
before opening the bottle. 

The second method is known as the methylene blue test. A 
small portion of an aqueous solution of the dye (i cc. of a i per 
cent solution) is added to the effluent in a glass-stoppered 
bottle of 250 cc. capacity, and the sample is kept at either 98° 
or 68° F. During the period of observation the blue color of 
the solution remains practically unchanged until the available 
oxygen in the effluent is used up by the organic matter present 
and putrefactive conditions arise. At this point the dye is 
reduced and decolorized. The time required for decolorization 
is a quantitative measure of the degree of putrescibility of the 
sample, and the retention of the color for a period of four days 
or more at 68° or of two days at 98° may be taken as an indica- 
tion of good stability. Instead of the periods mentioned, some 
use a period of one week at 68° and four days at 98° as the 
standard. A higher degree of purification is required to satisfy 
this test than the test with shorter periods. A note should be 
made, in the records of tests, of the standard used. 

The trickling filter represents the latest method of sewage 
purification. 

In a study of the treatment of wastes before they are aflowed 
to enter running water certain facts are to be kept clearly in 
mind. 

First. It is the changes occurring in matter high in nitrogen 
that cause most trouble from odor (the chief element causing 
nuisance) . 

Second. There are great differences in rate of decomposition 
of nitrogenous substances. Sewage wastes are already past the 
first stage; creamery wastes are readily putrescible; tannery 



272 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

wastes have both easily and slowly changing elements; most 
manufacturing wastes as they come from the mill contain both. 
The decomposition of unstable substances may be hastened by 
distribution in thin layers or in drops, also unsavory gases tend 
to disappear; oxygen being taken on in their place. 

The more permanent substances await a favorable time. The 
relative amount of the two classes, unstable and stable, besides 
the decomposed material already in solution, is to be approxi- 
mately known before a plan of treatment may be followed. 

One way is to incubate the sample for twenty-four, thirty- 
six, or forty-eight hours at 30° to 40° C, and determine the 
change. 

To ascertain the important fact whether the matter to be 
decomposed is already in solution, a portion may be treated 
with milk of alumina and filtered through paper. 

The chief divergence from sewage, noticed in other wastes, 
is usually the higher oxygen consumed, and higher albuminoid 
ammonia in proportion to the free ammonia and consequent 
high loss on ignition. 

Usually there is a higher mineral content and very often the 
kind of waste is betrayed by color or odor. Each case must be 
worked up on its merits. 

In an earlier discussion of the cycle of nitrogen and its aid to 
interpretation of observed facts the differences in composition 
between animal and vegetable substances was noted. Recent 
investigation seems to show that it is not so much what has 
been called animal and vegetable, but that the distinction lies 
in the quantity of substances that enters into the living matter 
in each. To be alive is to be in a state of constant change or 
rearrangement of component parts, — atoms, ions, — or perhaps 
in the rapidity of motion of electrons. 

In vegetables (fixed plant life) these changes are carried on 
with less protoplasm, that network of nitrogen, sulphur, and 
phosphorus about which and within which the chemical changes, 
building up in plants, tearing down, release of energy in animals, 
take place. 



L.\B ORATORY EXERCISES 273 

We may say that so far as our knowledge goes the forces of 
Kfe and decay have to do with N, S, and P, and that carbon 
is the chief element ^dth which these forces play in presence 
of water, H2O, or at least HO, hydroxyl, or hydrol as some 
prefer. 

In water examinations it is the products of decay which in- 
dicate danger. It is evident that a pound of leaves may give the 
same end products as a pound of lean meat, but that they will 
be in different proportions. The leaves will undergo the starch 
(see usual reaction) and cellulose fermentations, the latter yield- 
ing as end products CO2 and H2O with an intermediate CH4, 
methane, marsh gas. Hoppe Seyler considers this the special 
business of the fission fimgi and the probable reaction as: 

C6H10O5 + H2O = C6H12O6 = 3 GO2 + 3 CH4. 

Others hold that the setting free of CH4 is accompanied by the 
formation of acetic and butyric acids. In the absence of air, as 
at the bottom of ponds or of tanks, the butyric fermentation may 
be after this order: 

CeHeOe gives C3H7COOH + 2 CO4 + 4 H. 

But all Hfe requires nitrogen, and leaves as well as all other 
vegetable tissues contain dead protoplasm to be disposed of. 
Bideal gives two possible reactions: hydrolysis, or breaking 
dowTi by addition of water. A solution. 

(i) 4C8Hi3N203+i4H20givesgases4N+i9CH4+i3C02 + 2H2. 

This is a typical decomposition without taking account of sulphur 
or phosphorus, or according to the species of bacteria at work 
the following may occur : 

(2) 2 C8H13M2O2 + 16 H2O gives 4 NH3 + 16 CO2 + 33 H2. 

The greater activity of animal life seems to demand more S 
and P as well as N. S is a constant constituent of albumin; 
therefore the end products yield perceptible quantities of evil- 
smelling compounds of these elements, such as H2S and mer- 



274 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

captans. The reactions are somewhat obscure, but the following 
have been suggested and will serve the purposes of illustration, 
even if they do not occur in just this manner: 

.,, . ( C72H112N18O22S, 
Albumm < ^ „ at n q 

( ^728-tlii7liN 194U21403, 

or is supposed to yield under some conditions at least such 
compounds as Argenin, C6H14N4O2; Lysin, C6H14N2O2; Histidin 
C6H9N3O; Haematin, C3jH32N404Fe. 

The first three may break up according to the general formula 

R-NH2 + NOOH = 2 N (free nitrogen) + H2O + R - OH. 

There is present in feces, Lucine, C6H13O2N, which plus 2 H2O 
= C5H10 + CO2 + 2 H2 (free hydrogen) + NH3 (an example of 
hydrolysis) . 

There is also Tyrosine, C9H11O3N, which in absence of air yields 

C8H7N1CO2 + H2O + H2 

4C8Hi3N203+i4H20 = thegases = 4N2 + i9CH4+i3C02 + 2H2. 

This is another example of hydrolysis. 

Also, Urea, CON2H4 + 2 H2O = CO + (NH3)2 + H2O. 

Nitrous acid can decompose urea, but is itself at the same time 
decomposed. 

CO(NH2)2 + 2 HMO2 = CO2 + 4 N (free nitrogen) + 3 H2O. 

Sulphur in albuminoids is very easily removed by organisms, 
some utilizing it for themselves, some causing it to be evolved 
as H2S (a fission fungus has been grown in a pit water rich in 
CaC04 so successfully as to convert all the gypsum into CaS 
andFeS). Also CaS04 + CH4 = CaC03 + H2S + H2O. Thus 
N, H, CO2, CH4, NH3 are the end products of nitrogenous 
iermentations. 

The usual sewage pollution which the engineer is called upon 
'to recommend disposal for, is a mixture and a most indefinite 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 275 

mixture, varying not only every day in the week but every hour 
in the day. Discharged into a stream it is, moreover, more or 
less diluted; as the stream rises and falls it is pushed against 
the bank by the current and mingling with the colder water is 
often delayed by the friction of the banks. 

After a short distance has been traversed the fluid has become 
so complex that any question of animal or vegetable origin of 
the organic matter is futile. 

However obtained, the products include CO2, CH4, NH3, N, 
H2O, H, H2S, SO2 (?), sulphur, alcohols as mercaptan, C2H5SH, 
etc. 

Although little is known of the decomposition of the phos- 
phorous radicals, they doubtless add to the odors. Offense is 
given by the intermediate products only, and by those not food 
for organisms but produced by chemical reduction processes, en- 
zymes, etc. Therefore it is the manager's task to keep the 
process going forward as fast and as far as is possible, and not 
backward. 

The laboratory work of the class will depend upon the time 
available. The best exercise will be a test for sulphur products 
(either lead or zinc acetate — odor may be more delicate) or for 
organic acids as butyric, and for fats, soaps, etc. 

The chief value of this exercise will be to draw attention to 
investigations now going on which may change all views. See 
Rideal, Sewage and the Bacterial Purification of Sewage; Lafar, 
Vols. I and II, Chemistry of the Proteids, Gustav Mann, etc. 

EXERCISE XI 

Trade Wastes 

If a field trip cannot be made for collection the instructor may 
procure a variety from different sources. 

What was said of the extreme variation of sewer content 
is still more true of the discharge from manufacturing plants, 
the chemicals used in the processes, the materials themselves, 
often of putrescible substances, as in a tannery or a creamery; 



276 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



of greasy character, as in wool scouring; of turbidity producing, 
as in the manufacture of glucose. Near the discharge it is 
comparatively easy to recognize the component parts, but 
after dilution with 10,000 parts of the water supply the deter- 
mination of what has remained undecomposed and what has 
passed beyond need of consideration is often a case for con- 
siderable study. 

No definite rules can be given. 

The following trade wastes may be taken as typical. 



Average Analyses of Water Liquor, Filter Effluent, and Percentage 
Removal of Organic Matter of Waste from (A) Woolen Mill, No. 2, 
(B) Shoddy Mill, and (C) a Mill making Binder's Boards ^ 



Waste. 



Raw (A) 

Applied 

Effluent , 

Percentage removed by 

(a) Sedimentation 

(b) Sedimentation and filtration . . . 

(c) Filtration 



Raw (B) 

Applied 

Effluent 

Percentage removed by 

(a) Sedimentation 

(b) Sedimentation and filtration . . . 

(c) Filtration 



Raw (C) 

Applied 

Effluent 

Percentage removed by 

(a) Sedimentation 

(b) Sedimentation and filtration . . . 

(c) Filtration 



162.3 
150.6 
iiS-3 

7 
29 

23 

71.7 
53-6 
61. 1 

25 

15 



67.9 
32.1 
24.9 

53 
63 



62.4 
54-6 
12.6 

12 
30 

77 

36.9 
10. 1 

9-4 

72 

75 

7 

29.4 

16.0 

7-9 

46 
73 
50 



Ammonia. 



1000 
0700 
0280 



30 
72 
60 

6400 
6225 
0176 

3 
97 
97 

1800 
1197 



33 
94 
91 



H< 



•5330 
.3400 
.0514 

42 
91 
85 

.4300 
.1298 
•0534 

70 
88 
59 

•3550 
.1930 
•0355 

46 
90 
82 



Nitrogen as 



.0023 



0419 



II. O 

8.7 
0.97 

22 
91 



4-30 
1.94 
0.67 

56 
85 
65 

7.20 

3-72 
o. 70 



^ Mass. State Board of Health, Report No. 38, pp. 2q8, 299, 300. 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 277 

EXERCISE XII 

Standard Solutions. Permanent Standards 

Outfit for general work. Outfit for field work. See Part I, 
page loi. 

As to the manufacturer the phrase ''time is money" has 
come to mean a real principle, so to the engineer the phrase 
"delay is fatal." 

Many of the questions coming before the Boards of Control 
and before municipal and state laboratories need to be answered 
at once and with the least expenditure of time. 

Permanent Standards in Water Analysis 

Every chemist has noted with regret the hours that are con- 
sumed in preparing the various color standards for comparison 
now so universally used for the determination of the small 
amounts of ammonia, nitrites, nitrates, and other substances 
occurring in water. 

Nearly every analyst has tried to minimize the time thus ex- 
pended by some mineral solutions of his o^tl or others' devising, 
which will keep indefinitely and be always ready. 

There are two insurmountable obstacles to perfect success: 
first, that such pure or mixed solutions, frequently strongly 
acid, have a clearness and brilliancy of tone which the complex 
sample to be matched never possesses; and second, that the 
color produced in the solution to be tested depends upon a 
variety of conditions — temperature, quantity of reagent added, 
manner of making reagent, variable quantity of accompanying 
substances, time elapsing after preparation before comparison 
of color, and a score or two more, practically impossible to con- 
trol perfectly. The determination of ammonia by the Nessler 
reagent is a famihar example. 

These difficulties may be removed to a greater or less extent 
by careful preparation of the standards from solutions as nearly 
as practicable of the same order of variability. 



278 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

Hence it is that permanent standards, made up to match a 
given set of conditions, cannot he relied on under all other cir- 
cumstances. Nevertheless they have their ases; and for field 
work, where comparison within certain limits only is to be 
exacted, approximately permanent standards for all the common 
tests serve an admirable purpose. 

In preparing a portable field apparatus for the Louisiana 
Purchase Exposition two or three combinations were devised 
which may prove useful. The Griess test for nitrites is one of 
the most valuable for field work, but in the conditions under 
which tests must be made — lack of pure rinsing water, dusty 
atmosphere, and hasty work — the very unstable nitrite stand- 
ard is a source of anxiety, and therefore a set of permanent 
standards is much to be desired. 

The most satisfactory approach to these are the two Milton 
Bradley standard papers. The violet-red VR tint 2 is an exact 
match for the color given by 5 cc. of the standard nitrite solu- 
tion I cc. = o.ooooooi gram N in a cubic centimeter, when 
the test is made in a loo-cc. Nessler tube with a depth of 
5 inches to the graduation mark. The VR tint i matches the 
color given by 10 cc. of the standard under the same conditions. 
For field work the proper corrections are made for differences in 
volume and size of tubes before leaving the laboratory. 

Standards for the Grandval and Lajoux nitrate test were 
made from the neutral potassium chromate used for indicator in 
the chlorine test. For the deeper colors and ammonia, a solu- 
tion made after Tidy's formula was found to be practicable for 
dilution to the desired tints. K2Cr207, 0.25 gram C0SO4H2O, 
9.05 grams per liter. This solution avoids the strong acidity so 
unpleasant in portable cases. 

Aside from the acidity of the platinum standards they do not 
hold their color as well as does the Tidy solution in the stronger 
tints and under the conditions of field work. 

Standards for oxygen dissolved may be made in the labora- 
tory for field trips from the iodine and chromate standard solu- 
tions, which, if tightly stoppered and kept in the dark, will last 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 279 

some weeks. If clear glass flat bottles are used the per cent of 
saturation may be quite approximately determined. 

The chemist has been trained to a degree of exactness which 
often makes him skeptical of the value of approximate results, 
while the engineer, more than a match for the chemist, knows 
that there is "a large factor of safety in most calculations and 
that a wide margin for variations is to be allowed. 

The use of standard paper for nitrites is a case in point. As 
was explained under Exercise I, numerical exactness is time 
thrown away in the usual preliminary tests of the laboratory. 

Suppose a sample of water is brought in to find out if it has 
been contaminated from a hen yard; before going through a 
two-days' minute examination, the analyst may more profitably 
make the preliminary examination in an hour's time, and by 
the aid of permanent standards it may be possible to give an 
approximate quantitative analysis. 

Such permanent standards must fulfill certain requirements, 
like actual permanence and good comparison. 

Glass fulfills most requirements — Lovibond's Tintometer with 
its graded colored glasses, although costly, is a very satisfactory 
instrument. 

In a number of cases the object is best reached by standard 
solutions which may be prepared in large quantities and the 
color developed as needed — nitrate standard, for instance. 

In most such cases the colors are not permanent, but that is 
not of special consequence except for field work. 

Field Work : Its Value in Survey Inspection 

The student is now prepared to study the problem of field 
work. This can be satisfactorily carried out only by persons 
previously trained in the laboratory. 

To put into the hands of an untrained assistant, however 
intelligent, tablets prepared by the wholesale weeks beforehand, 
with only printed directions and slight explanations, is much the 
same as to give similar directions with a case of medicine pellets 



28o CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

to an engineer going to the Philippines hoping that he may 
dispense them without the aid of a trained physician. 

The pellets so administered might ward off an attack of 
disease but they would be just as likely to cause some internal 
disturbance. On the other hand, carried by a trained person 
who understands their effect they might be of the greatest use. 

A field kit should be prepared in the central laboratory and 
the results brought back to be checked up. 

In this exercise the class will use both methods, i.e., field pro- 
cesses and laboratory tests, on the same samples of water and 
compare the results obtained. Illustration, Part I, page loi. 

Reagent. Nessler's. Dissolve 60 grams of KI (potassium 
iodide) in 250 cc. distilled water free from ammonia. Add to 
this, cautiously, a cold solution of HgCl2 (mercuric chloride) 
which has been saturated by boiling an excess of the solid and 
allowing it to crystallize out. Mercuric iodide is a brilliant red 
precipitate. The small amount in solution gives only a yellowish 
tinge. The sensitiveness of the reagent is due to a nice balance 
at this point. If there is an excess of HgCl2 the ammonia com- 
pound is too dark in color and precipitates too quickly; on 
the other hand, if not enough is added to give a few specks of 
red precipitate, the color will be too slight or even none. Prac- 
tice will enable the operator to approximate the amount of red 
precipitate very closely. Either solution may be added subse- 
quently as a corrective, but with some loss in clearness. The 
laboratory should always match the new solution to the old 
before it is quite out. Dissolve 150 grams of tested stick KOH 
in about 250 cc. of the ammonia-free water; when cool, add to 
the previously prepared mercuric iodide and allow to settle over 
night; decant and bottle. Keep a small bottle for the daily use. 
Some iron is liable to be present to cause a cloudiness. 

The variations in ammonia determinations due to variations 
in Nessler sensitiveness may be as large as 25 per cent; therefore 
whatever shade is adopted it should be adhered to. 

Reagent. Alkaline permanganate for albuminoid ammonia 
(may also be used to neutralize the Kjeldahl digestate). 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 28I 

Potassium hydrate (stick potash) may be had free from or- 
ganic or reducing substances, and such only should be used. 
Find a satisfactory lot and then lay in a stock. Dissolve 230 
grams in about 1200 cc. distilled water free from ammonia, add 
8 grams of refined potassium permanganate crystals, sprinkling 
them in while stirring, watching for a green color which indicates 
impure reagents. There is usually a slight green with the first 
two or three crystals, due often to bits of paper from the KOH 
bottle. A deep purple color should persist after the first few 
crystals are added. Bring to boiling temperature as a matter 
of precaution for five or ten minutes, but no more than the 
extra 200 cc. should be evaporated; allow to cool and bottle for 
use. The first solution from a new lot of KOH should be tested 
to see if 40 cc. gives, with water freed from ammonia, any more 
on distilling 50 cc. 

The Water Assay. Example of Routine Examination. 
Requirements as to Outfit, Intelligence, Workers. 

Investigation must go hand in hand with routine work, for no 
outside search can compare with the questions which come to the 
expert in the course of daily variations. The mere routine worker 
does not catch the significance of the opportunity, does not see 
the explanation of observations extending over months perhaps. 

On the other hand, if the expert or manager has no idea of the 
possibilities of laboratory experiments, he will let slip many an 
opportunity. 

From long experience, it is recommended that in a routine 
laboratory the workers be required to keep notes of each day's 
work, putting down all unusual appearances and any peculiar 
reactions, odors, etc. Such observation may prove the key to 
the interpretation. 

Of importance it is that the worker should know the ABC 
of the business, the technique. If a horticulturist had never 
smelled violets, how would he know that they gave odors? So in 
the varied mixtures that are sent down rivers and into small 



282 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 




View of Electrically Equipped Experiment Table in Water Laboratory 




Electric Flask Heater in use in Laboratory for Water Analysis 



LABOR.\TORY EXERCISES 283 

Streams a knowledge of odors and of behavior of decomposing 
substances is of advantage. The pecuKar odor of imperfect 
filtration, for instance, is a quicker and just as sure a test as a 
chemical one. 

A skillful laboratory operator combines something of a busi- 
ness administrator, quick to seize an opportunity, combined with 
concentration of thought, something of a detective, watchful of 
any indication of the unusual, with the rapidity of working of a 
trained manipulator. The right test is to be made at the right 
time, not only to secure the right result but also to fit in best with 
the day's work. For instance, if the operator waits until noon to 
decide whether the sample must be concentrated, the whole day 
is lost, unless he works in the evening, so far as finishing the 
analysis is concerned. The half-evaporated sample must not 
be left exposed all night in the cleanest laboratory. All opera- 
tions which require time are to be begun early. The tests which 
must be made on the freshly opened sample should come first — 
ammonia, nitrites, carbon dioxide, odors; such examinations as 
hardness, sulphates, etc., must await any convenient time. 

A routine found to be generally practicable is as follows: 
8.30 A.M., gas or electricity turned on, plates and stills started 
heating. Samples received the night before are examined, with- 
out shaking, for general appearance, turbidity, clayey milky 
sediment, flocculent organisms gathering toward the Kght, away 
from the light, at the top of the water or diffused, hydra fastened 
to the sides, leeches crawling on the bottom, cyclops active or 
dead, and daphnia, etc. When all observations are recorded, 
the stopper is rinsed off, also the mouth of the bottle with the 
contained water, and the bottle so placed that the successive 
samples shall be poured from the same clean side. The sample 
is then gently mixed. There is first taken the 500 cc. for am- 
monia distillation and the sample for carbon dioxide if it is 
required, then the 250 cc. for decolorization for nitrites and 
nitrates, and then and not till then is the bottle closed and 
shaken for half a minute so that the dissolved gases may be col- 
lected in the air space left by the abstraction of the various 



284 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



d 
.2 

a 
1 
§ 

1 


Change 
on Igni- 
tion. 




1 




11 








"3 
0^ 


o 

o 


1 




1 




g 

B 

% 




:2 . 

3 "^ 




1 




"o 


;3 S 




3- 




>, 


. 


1 





< 

CO 



Remarks. 

(Organisms present; bacteria 
total count, B. coli present, etc.) 




i 

3 
c/2 




1 




3 

i 




c3 




1 i 
61 




1 


i 
1 




c/5 




Free 
Ammo- 
nia. 




A 

'S 
o 
6 
6 
< 
-a 

1 
S 

3 
< 


J. -2; 


1 
i 




e5 




_- -2 





LABORATORY EXERCISES 285 

samples. The odor of the cold sample is now taken by inserting 
the nose into the inch-wide neck of the bottle and judging quickly 
by the first strong sniff. In the majority of cases the test is a 
deUcate but decisive one if taken with experience and under- 
standing. The odor of the heated sample may be confirmatory 
or may develop an entirely new lead. 

By this time the stills are cleaned and ready for the already 
measured samples. In fine work it is best never to take anything 
for granted. AU apparatus should be proved clean before using. 
With the electric still one may safely turn one's back for five 
minutes, as the rate is even. Nitrites may be filtered and tested, 
nitrates set to evaporate, chlorine put on the already hot water 
bath, on the whole a safer medium for chlorine than a hot plate. 
All the details of the work should be kept up sharply, especially 
the notebook; records ^ymst go do^m at the moment. 

Six samples at one time are about the favorable limit for one 
person to handle in routine work for a complete series of tests. 
By 10 o'clock the record should show the physical character, 
the preliminary tests, the nitrites and the free ammonia in 
tubes ready to Xesslerize. If total soKds are to be determined 
the dishes should now be weighed (unless they were weighed the 
night before and left in desiccators) and placed on the water 
bath protected by a ring of filter paper if silver-plated rings are 
not at hand. The least mark on the outside adds to the weight. 
Add the water after the dishes are placed, recording the num- 
bers. The smaller the quantity of Water to be evaporated the 
less danger of extraneous matter collected by it. The ammonia 
flasks are now cool enough for the dose of potassium perman- 
ganate, which must be added through a long-stemmed funnel to 
prevent a touch of alkaU on the neck, whence it acts on the 
stopper if of rubber or cork, as on any organic matter, or if 
the stopper is of glass, helps to seal it in. 

If a gas flame is used place it close enough to spread over a 
radius of an inch or more to prevent bumping, rotate the flask 
slightly to mix the heavy alkali Hquid, watch until safely boiling. 
The electric still gives little or no trouble. 



286 CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 

By 12 or 12.30 o'clock the racks of ammonia tubes should be 
set aside, covered to protect from stray dust, — there should be 
practically none in a water laboratory, — all the preliminary 
tests done, the records made up, chlorine and total solids evapo- 
rating, nitrates dry and covered ready for a convenient time to 
treat and read, Kjeldahl ''cooking" if the test is to be made, 
and the operator can go to his luncheon with a good conscience; 
matters will be advancing in his absence. 

Returning to the laboratory, the first thing is to Nesslerize 
and read the ammonia colors. They must be comparable and 
so stand the same length of time. If permanent standards are at 
hand the reading is simple and, with a tungsten-light apparatus, 
may be delayed until dark. If they are to be made up, that is 
to be done at the same time and the comparative readings taken 
in the strong midday light. 

Although the chemist does not rely upon the amount of 
oxygen which a given sample of water will take from potassium 
permanganate as a decisive test, he finds it a useful comparison 
between two samples, before and after filtration, for example. 
He also finds in the relation between color, albuminoid am- 
monia, and oxygen consumed a valuable indication of the char- 
acter of the dissolved organic matter as explained on page 124, 
Part I. 

The potassium permanganate should be in excess even at the 
end of the boiling or half -hour digesting period; therefore if the 
sample bleaches it is better to throw it out and begin again. 
Taken in connection with this estimation of organic matter, the 
behavior on ignition of the weighed residue in the platinum 
dish is often most instructive, and in case of surface waters and 
filter effluents should not be omitted. The odors given off at 
the successive stages of heating are often characteristic. Sewage 
pollution not infrequently betrays itself by odor during heating 
more clearly than at any other stage of the examination. Prac- 
tice and close attention are demanded of the operator to secure 
valuable results. 

If a microscopical examination is to be made, it will be best 



LABORATORY EXERCISES 287 

to filter for it now and allow the total solids to stand overnight. 
It is usually best to leave them in the sulphuric acid desiccator 
several hours, since, because of its sugary or greasy nature, the 
residue needs long drying. 

Hardness, iron, and other tests go over to the next day unless 
it is essential to get out a report. Then the cleaning up must 
be left and that is not advisable. In no class of operations is 
it so important to clean apparatus immediately after using. 
The Nessler tubes will keep clear for months if rinsed within the 
hour, but if the alkaline Nessler is allowed to dry on or to stand 
for hours the tubes soon become useless. 

The distilHng flasks are attacked by the strong alkaline per- 
manganate left at the end of the distillation and unless washed 
without delay soon become so thin as to break while in use with 
disastrous results. If the operator has no trained helper he 
must look after this most conscientiously. 

In making up the report the next day there may be discrep- 
ancies and doubts. Even the most careful person may take 
down a wrong burette reading or forget to record a volume 
used, especially if a caller intrudes on busy hours. The finishing 
up of all tests and records, the Kjeldahl if it is used, etc., will 
occupy most of the second day. If there is a helper, solutions 
may be kept up in intervals ; some may be made up in large 
stock; some do not keep. The Nessler and permanganate re- 
quire the most deHcate manipulation. 

The above assumes a general laboratory proceeding. In 
routine work where only two or three tests are demanded on a 
larger number of samples, there will be a system of running a 
bank of apparatus developed by the ingenuity of each laboratory 
force. 



BRIEF BIBLIOGRAPHY SINCE 1900. 



Air and Health. Ronald C. Macfie. New York, E. P. Button & Co., 1909. 

Air Currents and the Laws of Ventilation. W. N. Shaw. Cambridge, 
England, University Press, 1907. 

Reflections on Heating and Ventilating Engineering. Konrad Meier, 
27 E. 2 2d St., New York, 1904. 

The Value of Pure Water. George C. Whipple. John Wiley & Sons, 1907. 

The Examination of Waters and Water Supplies. J. C. Thresh. London, 
J. & A. Churchill, 1904. 

Elements of Water Bacteriology. Prescott and Winslow. John Wiley & 
Sons, 1904. 

General Bacteriology. Jordan. W. B. Saunders Co., 1910. 

Public Water Supplies: Requirements, Resources, and the Construction of 
Works. Turneaure and Russell. New York, John Wiley & Sons, 1908. 

Clean Water and How to Get It. x\llen Hazen. John Wiley & Sons, 1908. 

Hygiene Generale des Villes. Vol. XII of Traite des Hygiene. Brouardel et 
Mosney. Paris, Bailliere et Fils, 1910. 

Report of CoMiOTTEE on Standard Methods of Water Analysis. Reprinted 
from Journal of Infectious Diseases. Chicago, 1905. 

Air, Water, and Food from a Sanitary Standpoint. Richards and Woodman. 
Third edition. John Wiley & Sons, 1909. 

Sewage antd the Bacterial Purification of Sewage. Samuel Rideal. New 
York, John Wiley & Sons, 1900. 

Principles of Sewage Treatment. Dunbar. Trans. H. T. Calvert. London, 
Griffin & Co., 1908. 

Purification of Sewage. Kinnicutt, Winslow and Pratt. John Wiley & Sons, 
1910. 

Trades Waste, Its Treatment and Utilization. W. Naylor. London, 
GriflTm & Co., 1908. 

289 



290 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

STATE AND CITY REPORTS. 

Massachusetts State Board or Health. 

State Department of Health. New York. Especially the 29th, 1909. 

Bulletins of the State Water Survey. Illinois. 

State Board of Health of Minnesota. 

State Board of Health of Ohio. 

American Waterworks Association. 

New England Waterworks Association. 

Water Supply Papers. U. S. Geological Survey. 



TABLES I .\ND II 



291 



TABLE I. 

TABLE OF HARDNESS. SHOWING THE PARTS OF CALCIUM CARBONATE 
(CaCOg) IN 1,000,000 FOR EACH TENTH OF A CUBIC CENTIMETER OF 
WEAK SOAP SOLUTION USED, 

Using 50 cc. of the sample. 



Soap 

Solution, 

cc. 


O.G 


0.1 


0.2 


0.3 


0.4 


0.5 


0.6 


0.7 


0.8 


0.9 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 


cc. 



















0.0 
15.6 


1.6 
16.9 


3 2 


1.0 


4.8 


6.3 


7.9 


9.5 


11.1 


12.7 


14.3 


18.2 


2.0 


19.5 


20.8 


22.1 


23.4 


24.7 


26.0 


27.3 


28.6 


29.9 


31.2 


3.0 


32.5 


33.8 


35.1 


36.4 


37.7 


39.0 


40.3 


41.6 


42.9 


44.3 


4.0 


45.7 


47.1 


48.6 


50.0 


51.4 


52.9 


54.3 


55.7 


57.1 


58.6 


5.0 


60.0 


61.4 


62.9 


64.3 


65.7 


67.1 


68.6 


70.0 


71.4 


72.9 


6.0 


74.3 


75.7 


77.1 


78.6 


80.0 


81.4 


82.9 


84.3 


85.7 


87. L 


7.0 


88.6 


90.0 


91.4 


92.9 


94.3 


95.7 


97.1 


98.6 


100.0 


101.5 


8.0 


103.0 


104.5 


106.0 


107.5 


109.0 


110.5 


112.0 


113.5 


115.0 


116.5 


9.0 


118.0 


119.5 


121.1 


122.6 


124.1 


125.6 


127.1 


128.6 


130.1 


131.6. 


10.0 


133.1 


134.6 


136.1 


137.6 


139.1 


140.6 


142.1 


143.7 


145.2 


146.8; 


11.0 


148.4 


150.0 


151.6 


153.2 


154.8 


156.3 


157.9 


159.5 


161.1 


162. r 


12.0 


164.3 


165.9 


167.5 


169.0 


170.6 


172.2 


173.8 


175.4 


177.0 


178.6 


13.0 


180.2 


181.7 


183.3 


184.9 


186. 


188.1 


189.7 


191.3 


192.9 


194.4 


14.0 


196.0 


197.6 


199.2 


200.8 


202.4 


204.0 


205.6 


207.1 


208.7 


210.3 


15.0 


211.9 


213.5 


215.1 


216.8 


218.5 


220.2 


221.8 


223.5 


225.2 


226.9 



TABLE II. 

TABLE OF HARDNESS, SHOWING THE PARTS OF CaCOg IN 1,000,000 FOR 
EACH TENTH OF A CUBIC CENTIMETER OF WEAK SOAP SOLUTION 
USED. 

Using 10 cc. of sample of water plus 40 cc. distilled water. 



Soap 

Solution, 

cc. 


0.0 
cc. 


0.1 
cc. 


0.2 
cc. 


0.3 
cc. 


0.4 
cc. 


0.5 
cc. 


0.6 
cc. 


0.7 
cc. 


0.8 
cc. 


0.9 

cc. 


0.0 


















8.0 


16 


1.0 


24.0 


31.5 


39.5 


47.5 


55.5 


63.5 


71.5 


78.0 


84.5 


91.0 


2.0 


97.5 


104.0 


110.5 


117.0 


123.5 


130.0 


136.5 


143.0 


149.5 


156.0 


3.0 


162.5 


169.0 


175.5 


182.0 


188.5 


195.0 


201.5 


208.0 


214.5 


221.5 


4.0 


228.5 


235.5 


243.0 


250.0 


257.0 


264.5 


271.5 


278.5 


285.5 


293.0 


5.0 


300.0 


307.0 


314.5 


321.5 


328.5 


335.5 


343.0 


350.0 


357.0 


364.5 


6.0 


371.5 


378.5 


385.5 


393.0 


400.0 


407.0 


414.5 


421.5 


428.5 


435.5 


7.0 


443.0 


450.0 


457.0 


464.5 


471.5 


478.5 


485.5 


493.0 


500.0 


507.5 


8.0 


515.0 


522.5 


530.0 


537.5 


545.0 


552.5 


560.0 


567.5 


575.0 


582.5 


9.0 


590.0 


597.6 


605.5 


613.0 


620.5 


628.0 


635.5 


643.0 


650.5 


658.0 


10.0 


665.5 


673.0 


680 . 5 


688.0 


695.5 


703.0 


710.5 


718.5 


726.0 


734.0 


11.0 


742.0 


750.0 


758.0 


766.0 


774.0 


781.5 


789.5 


797.5 


805.5 


813.4 


12.0 


821.5 


829.5 


837.5 


845.0 


853.0 


861.0 


869.0 


877.0 


885.0 


893.0 


13.0 


901.0 


908.5 


916.5 


924.5 


932.5 


940.5 


948.5 


856.5 


964.5 


972.0 


14.0 


980.0 


988.0 


996.0 


1004.0 


1012.0 


1020.0 


1028.0 


1035.5 


1043.5 


1051.5 


15.0 


1059.5 


1067.5 


1075.5 


1084.0 


1092.5 


1101.0 


1109.0 


1117.5 


1126.0 


1134.5 



292 



CONSERVATION BY SANITATION 



Jour. Am. Chem. Soc, 1901, 799. 



TABLE III. 

TABLE FOR THE PHOTOMETRIC DETERMINATION OF SULPHURIC 

ACID. 



Depth 


SO3 


Depth 


SO3 


Depth 


SO3 


Depth 


SO3 


in 


Parts per 


in 


Parts per 


in 


Parts per 


in 


Parts per 


cm. 


Million. 


cm. 


Million. 


cm. 


Million. 


cm. 


Million. 


1.0 


522. 


4.0 


140. 


7.0 


81. 


10.0 


57. 


1.1 


478. 


4.1 


137. 


7.1 


80. 


10.2 


56. 


1.2 


442. 


4.2 


133. 


7.2 


79. 


10.4 


55. 


1.3 


410. 


4.3 


131. 


7.3 


78. 


10.6 


54. 


1.4 


383. 


4.4 


128. 


7.4 


77. 


10.8 


53. 


1.5 


359. 


4.5 


125. 


7.5 


76. 


11.0 


52. 


1.6 


338. 


4.6 


122. 


7.6 


75. 


11.2 


51. 


1.7 


319. 


4.7 


119. 


7.7 


74. 


11.4 


50. 


1.8 


302. 


4.8 


117. 


7.8 


73. 


11.6 


49. 


1.9 


287. 


4.9 


115. 


7.9 


72. 


11.8 


48. 


2.0 


273. 


5.0 


113. 


8.0 


71. 


12.0 


47. 


2.1 


261. 


5.1 


110. 


8.1 


70. 


12.2 


47. 


2.2 


250. 


5.2 


108. 


8.2 


69. 


12.4 


46. 


2.3 


239. 


5.3 


106. 


. 8.3 


68. 


12.6 


45. 


2.4 


230. 


5.4 


104. 


8.4 


68. 


12.8 


44. 


2.5 


221. 


5.5 


103. 


8.5 


67. 


13.0 


43. 


2.6 


213. 


5.6 


101. 


8.6 


66. 


13.5 


42. 


2.7 


205. 


5.7 


99. 


8.7 


65. 


14.0 


41. 


2.8 


198. 


5.8 


97. 


8.8 


64. 


14.5 


39. 


2.9 


191. 


5.9 


96. 


8.9 


64. 


15.0 


38. 


3.0 


185. 


6.0 


94. 


9.0 


63. 


15.5 


37. 


3.1 


179. 


6.1 


93. 


9.1 


62. 


16.0 


36. 


3.2 


173. 


6.2 


91. 


9.2 


62. 


16.5 


35. 


3.3 


168. 


6.3 


90. 


9.3 


61. 


17.0 


34. 


3.4 


164. 


6.4 


88. 


9.4 


60. 


17.5 


33. 


3.5 


159. 


6.5 


87. 


9.5 


60. 


18.0 


32. 


3.6 


155. 


6.6 


86. 


9.6 


59. 


18.5 


31. 


3.7 


151. 


6.7 


84. 


9.7 


59. 


19.0 


30. 


3.8 


147. 


6.8 


83. 


9.8 


58. 


19.5 


29. 


3.9 


144. 


6.9 


82. 


9.9 


57. 


20.0 


29. 



J. I. D. Hinds. Journal Am. Chem. Soc, 18, 661, and 2-2, 269. 



TABLE IV 



293 



TABLE IV. 

FOR THE CONVERSION OF PARTS PER 1,000,000 INTO GRAINS PER GALLON. 

AND VICE VERSA: ALSO, FOR COMPARING DEGREES 

OF HARDNESS. 





Grains in 

U. S. Stan- 

dard Gallon. 


Grains in 
Imperial 
Gallon. 


Degrees of Hardness. 


Parts in 
1,000,000. 


French: 
Parts 


English: 

Grains 

CaCOg in 


German: 
Parts CaO 








CaCOg in 
1,000,000. 


Imperial 
Gallon. 


in 
1.000,000. 


1 


.0584 


.07 


1 


.07 


0.6 


2 


.1167 


.14 


2 


.14 


1.1 


3 


.1751 


.21 


3 


.21 


1.7 


4 


.2335 


.29 


4 


.28 


2.2 


5 


.2919 


.35 


5 


.35 


2.8 


6 


.3502 


.42 


6 


.42 


3.4 


7 


.4086 


.49 


7 


.49 


3.9 


8 


.4670 


.56 


8 


.56 


4.5 


9 


.5254 


.63 


9 


.63 


5.0 


17.131 


1 


1.1992 


14. 


1 


08. 


34.262 


2 


2.3893 


29. 


2 


16. 


51.393 


3 


3.5975 


43. 


3 


24. 


68.524 


4 


4.7967 


67. 


4 


32. 


85.655 


5 


5.9958 


71. 


5 


40. 


102.786 


6 


7.1950 


86, 


6 


48. 


119.917 


7 


8.3942 


100. 


7 


56. 


137.048 


8 


9.5934 


114. 


8 


64. 


154.179 


9 


10.7925 


128. 


9 


72. 


14.286 


0.8339 


1 


. 1.8 


.12 


1 


28.571 


1.6678 


2 


3.6 


.25 


2 


42.857 


2.5017 


3 


5.4 


.38 


3 


57.143 


3.3356 


4 


7.1 


.50 


4 


71.428 


4.1695 


5 


9.0 


.63 


5 


85.714 


5.0033 


6 


10.7 


.75 


6 


100.000 


5.8372 


7 


12.6 


.88 


7 


114.286 


6.6711 


8 


14.3 


1.00 


8 


128.571 


7.5050 


9 


16.1 


1.13 


9 



Water Supply, Chemical and Sanitary. William Ripley Nichols. 1880. 




HON. 
expres 



ilorine 
I chlo 



ieut cL 




STATE BOARD OF HEALTH 

MAP OF THE '"'°,rj"' "' ' 

STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. ■-lEH^,^ 

SHOWING Th/fl°g™esuu!teSa''„^re»e.tclilorinesofBr«un<l. 

NORMAL CHLORINE. 



^'^ V 



\'^ 



Wh 



'CxA P C C C I p r 






INDEX 



Act of Congress to establish board of 

health, 50 
Act to protect the purity of inland 

waters, 74 
Adulteration of food, 51 
Aeration, 29, 124, 132, 151, 155, 167 
insufficient, 156 

to remove odors of stagnation, 120 
^thetic reasons for waste disposal, 

203-206 
Air, 1-5, 8 
leakage, 12 
organic matter in, 51 
standards of, 6-9 
supply, 10-14 
cost of, 3 
tests, 225 
"Air and Health," 9 
Albany, 28. 29 
Albuminoid ammonia, 52, 55, 56, 64, 

247 
Algae, 95, 105, III, 118, 122 
Alum, 192 

"American Medicine," 179 
American Public Health Association, 50, 

226 
American Society of Heating and Venti- 
lating Engineers, 14 
Ammonia, 8r, loo, 105, 235, 240, 246 
Ammoniacal salts, 7, 8 
Analysis, sanitary water, 147, 233, 255, 
263, 284 
of spring at Tunbridge Wells, 144 
of waste liquor, 276 
Ancient waterworks, 19-28 
Anderson process, 168 
Animal matter, 86 
Apoplexy, heat, 8 



Appalachian slopes, 96 
Appearance of water, 145, 234 
Aqua Marcius, 23 
Aqueduct at Lyons, 24 
Aqueduct, Cochituate, 36-37 

of Chaponost, 24 

Wachusett, 35 
Aqueducts, 21, 22, 27, S3, 35 

in Constantinople, 25 

Roman, in Spain, 25 
Architects, 9 

" Archiv fiir Hygiene," 7, 8 
Ashland Reservoir, 121 
Assay, water, 75-83, 205, 281-287 
Assiniboine River, 99 

Babcock, Miss Mabel, viii 
Bacillus coh, 68, 69, 179 

enteriditis, 68, 69 
Bacteria, 97, 105, iii, 112, 146, 151, 
152 

cultivating, 132 

experiments on, 120 
Bacterial action, 66, 81, 134 

count, 185 
Bacteriological determinations, 229-230 

examination, 68, 69 
Baekeland, Dr. Leo H., 221 
Basin 4, 123, 124 
Baths, 23, 24 
Benedict, Dr. F. G., 226 
Berlin sewage, 199 
" Biochemical Journal," 120 
Biologic purification, 134 
Biological engineer, 218 

examination of water, 128 
Blackstone Valley, map of, 189 
Board of Health, Illinois State, 72 



295 



296 



INDEX 



Board of Health, Massachusetts State, 
32, 33, 47, 48, 49, 50, 54, 56, 64, 
66, 83, 85, 168, 184, 190, 234, 276 

Michigan, 50, 150 

National, 50, 53 

New Jersey, 150 

New York, 29, 99 

rural, 150 
Boards of Health, State, 145 
Book references, 230 
Boston, 28, 32, 36, 38 

waterworks, 123 
Bowditch, Ernest, 51 
Bowditch, Dr. Henry I., 51, 184 
Brackett, Dexter, 32 
Breitzke, 148 
Bright Angels, Colo., sewage disposal 

at, 29 
British Association, 184 
Brown-Sequard, 7 

Bulletin, Illinois State Board of Health, 
72 

Illinois State Survey, 80-83 

of University of Wisconsin, 209, 210 

of National Board of Health, 7, 54, 56 
Bureau of Plant Industry, 146 
Burroughs and Welcome, 104 

Calumet and Hecla Mining Company, 

waterworks, 149 
Canal zone, 120 
Canals, 21 

Carbon dioxide, 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 227 
Carbon, proportion to nitrogen, 53 
Carbonic acid, free, 254-255 
Carhart, Henry S., 221 
Carnegie Nutrition Laboratory, 226 
Cesspool, 90, 171, 190 
Chadwick, Dr. Edwin, 47 
Charles River water, 151 
Chemical analysis, 66, 68 

examination, 7 

results of organic matter in water, 55 

standards, 65 
" Chemical News, " 144 
Chestnut Hill Reservoir, sSy 36, 37 



Chicago drainage canal, 107, 178 
Chih, waters of, 121 
Chlorine, 13, 105, 249 

ratio to nitrates, 122 
Chlorophyll, 167 
Cholera, 47, 49 

Cincinnati water supply, 28, 38-44 
City wastes, 169 
Civic engineer, 221 

interest, 139 

sense, 218 
Claudius, 23 
Clean hands, 231 

soil, 85, 107 
Cleanness, 153 
Clear-water basin, 40 
Clinton laboratory, 32, 113 
Clothing, over-, 14 
Coagulation, 112, 154, 155, 186 

basins, 40 

by alumimmi hydrate, 151 
Cochituate aqueduct, 36-37 
Cochituate, Lake, 33, 35, 114 
Cohen and Appleyard, 228 
Collecting grounds, loi, 107 

reservoirs, 117 
Collection, method of, 228-229 

of water samples, 72, 78, 243-245 
Color in water, 125-127, 259 
Colorimetric determinations, 77 
Columbus, Ohio, 267 
Combustion method, 52 
Comfort, 5 

curve of, 6-10 
Commercial interests, 86 
Commissioners to inquire into the 

pollution of rivers, 1 79-181 
Community engineer, 221 
Community welfare, 159 
Conservation of human resources, 47 

of natural resources, 85-110, 173 

problems, 196 
Conservators, 182, 183 
Constantinople, Roman aqueducts in, 

25 

Contact bed, 209, 210 



INDEX 



297 



Contamination, regulation of, 85 

sources of, 122 
Copper sulphate, 112, 120, 122, 123, 

130, ^33 
Cost, 10, 65 

of air supply, 3 

of filtering, 159 

of sickness, 61 
Cremation, 142, 169, 171-173, 206 
Crowd poison, 7 
Crum method, 251 
Curve of Comfort, 6-10 
Cyclops, 105 
Cycle, 117, 119, 133 

of drought, 106 

of hfe. III, 113, 116, 119, 120, 126, 128 

of value, 170 

Dam, Sudbury, 36 
Danger in well, 145 
Dangers of unclean soil, 103 
Daphnia, 105 
D'Arsonval, 7 
Decay, products of, 273 
Decaying vegetation, 120 
Decolorization, 151 
Decomposition of organic matter, 54 
Deep borings, 100 

Density of water, part of, in storage, 119 
Derby, Dr. George, 48 
Diagnosis, 72, 78 
material for, 80 
Dilute solutions, 56 
Dilution, 107, 169, 173-179 
Disinfectants, 51, 187 
Disposal of wastes, 112, 137, 144, 169- 

202, 269-270 
Dissolved oxy^gen, 83 
Distance, protective, 144 
Domestic sewage disposal, 184 
Drafts, 10, 14 
Drain contamination, 98 
Drainage basins in Massachusetts, 85 
Drains, 31 

Drinking water, 48, loi 
Drought, periods of, 20, 106 



Drown, Dr. Thomas M., 66, 72, 135 

Dust, 6 

Duty of cities, 5 

Earth statistics, 102 

Economic efi&ciency of water, 65 

use of water, 107 

value of worker, 47 
Econom}^ of human energy, 137 
Education, sanitary, 5, 98, 138, 144 

by sanitary legislation, 107 
Effluent drains, 31 

Engineer, iii, v, vii, 8, 10, 12, 14, 45, 58, 
61, 77, III, 138, 157, 220, 221 

biological, 218 

civic, 221 

civil, 219 

community, 221 

electrical, 219 

mechanical, 219 

municipal, 221 

pubUc-service, 222 

rural, 221 
Engineer-chemist, 194 
Engineering, 219 
" Engineering Record," 21, 22, 29, 59, 

99, 159 
Engineer's laboratory, 99, 156 
Epidemics, 60, 61, 65, 98, 138, 142, 187 
Epidemic, cost of an, 60 
Evaporation, 93 
Examination of the source, 69 
"Examination of Waters and Water 

Supplies," 67 
Example of polluted water, 100 
Experiments with increased oxygen on 

bacteria, 120 

Factory workers, instruction of, 137 

Famine, water, 114 

"Farm Water SuppHes of Minnesota," 

146 
Farmhouse supply, 145 
Farr, Dr. WilHam, 47 
Federal Health Bureau, 138 



298 



INDEX 



Fenway sample, 152 
Ferguson, Dr. Charles, 174 
Fertilizer, 105 
Field outfit, 104 

tests, 139 

work, 104-106, 279-280 
Filter, 29, 30, iii, 124, 151 

American, 155 

anaerobic, 209 

artificial, 63, 154 ^ 

Jewell, 161 

Lawrence No. 2, 97 

mechanical, 64, 166 

nitrifying, 29 

oxidizing, 29 

percolating, 210 

plant, 39 

sand, 161 

slow sand, 29, 165 

sprinkhng, 207 

trickling, 271 

Waring, 207 
Filtered water, 58 
Filters, first water, 20 

types of, 15s 
Filtration, 143, 151-168 

intermittent, 192, 199 

of sewage, 165 

rough, 192 

sand, 142 

systems, 113 
Floors, 30 
Flow of sewers, 51 
Flugge, 68 

Folsom, Dr. C. F., 51 
Food, adulteration of, 51 

for organisms, 112, 121, 134 
Formanek, Emanuel, 8 
Framingham, 36, 195 
Frankland, Sir Edward, 52, 54, 121 
Franklin, Benjamin, 46 
Free-ammonia experiments, 81 
Fresh-air habit, 140 
Frontinus, 23 
Fuller, George W., 39 
Future, the indicated, 45 



Galen, i 

Gibbs, Dr. Wolcott, 51 
Gilbert, Royce W., viii 
Gooch crucible, 267 
Government control, 107 
Gowanus Canal, 148 
Grit trap, 209 
Ground circulation, 89 

supply, 87, 142 

waters, 152, 153 
Gruber, 68 
Guhck, Dr. Luther, 218 

Habit, 140, 142 
Habits of community, 90, 94 
Haines, Reuben, 67 
Hardpan, artificial, 102 
Health, 146 

measures, 222 

officers, iii, 98, 146 

State boards of, 145 
Health Bureau, Federal, 138 
Health Commission of Virginia, 98 
" Health, Journal of," 47 
Health, New York State Department of, 

99 
Heat, 6, 8 

apoplexy, 8 
Hering, Rudolph, 51, 158 
Hill, Leonard, 8 
History of a water, 71, 76 
Humidity, 4, 6, 8 
Hurry filters, 166 

process of filtration, 160 
Hygiene, 46 
Hypochlorite, 136 

Ignition, loss on, 260 

Ignorance, rural, 138 

IlHnois River, map of, 178 

Illinois State Board of Health, 70, 72 

Illinois State Survey, Bulletin of, 80-83 

Illustrated lecture, 142 

Illustrations, 103, 115, 126, 127, 282 

Incas of Peru, 27 

Indianapohs, 174 



INDEX 



299 



Indicated future, 47 
Infection, 48, 61, 106, 142, 146 
Infecting material, 144 
Inlets to filters, 31 
Inspection, 79, 81, 94, 95, 138, 204 
of ventilation, 225 

tours of, 138-139 
Inspector, 143 
Inspectors, 138 

Instructive inspector, 141, 145 
Intake tunnel, 39 
Intercepting tank, 187 
Interpretation, an, 80-83 

of results, 72 

of water analyses, 262-264 
Ionization, 56 
Iron, 167, 261-262 
Irrigation, 20, 204 

at Vassar College, 199 

in Eastern countries, 20 

sewage, 45 
Isochlors, 75 
Isolation, 146 
Isthmian Canal Commission, 120 

Jackson, Dugald C, 216 
Jamaica Pond, 123-124, 130, 135 
Jerusalem, water supply of, 21 
Jewell filter, 161 
Jordan, E. O., 98 
Joseph's well at Cairo, 22 
'journal of Anatomy and Physiology," 7 
"Journal of Health," 47 

Kedsie, Dr. R. M., 51 
Kirkwood, J. P., 38 
Kjeldahl method, 268 
Klein, 69 

Laboratory and field, connection be- 
tween, 264-265 
Laborator>', Clinton, 32, 113 

engineer's, 156 

outfit, 76, 205 

precautions, 231 

routine, 283 



Laboratory of Sanitary Chemistr}-, 
Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, 7 

Lake Superior water, 149, 150 

Lawrence experiment station, 193, 195, 
234 

Lawrence filter, 97 

Legal protection of storage basins, 85 

Lime, 192 

water, standard, 227 

London, water supply of, 25-26 

Long-distance flow of polluted water, 99 

Longworth, Nicholas, 38 

Macfie, 9 

Mallett, Dr. J. W., 51, 53 
Maps, 178, 189, 193 
Marine Hospital Service, 52 
Mason, W. P., 66 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
Laboratory of Sanitary Chemis- 
try, 7 
Massachusetts, legislature of, 72, 74 
Massachusetts State Board of Health, 
32, 33, 48, 50, 56, 66, 168, 184, 234, 
276 
Mayow, i 

Mechanical processes, 90 
Medicine, preventive, iii 

State, 48 
Merrimac River, 195 
Metabolism, 3, 9 
Meteorological records, 92 

sources of water supply, 89 
Meter, Venturi, 29 
Metropolitan Board of Massachusetts, 

32, 33, 37, 38, 114 
Metropolitan supply, 113 

water act, 33 

waterworks, 32 
Michigan Board of Health, 50, 150 
Michigan, Lake, 71 
Milton-Bradley Standard papers, 278 
Minneapolis, 45 
Mitchell, Dr. Weir, 51 
Modern waterworks, 28-44 



300 



INDEX 



Moisture, 6, 8 

Montana River pollution law, i88 

Moore, Dr. Benjamin, 120 

Moving pictures, 142 

Municipal engineer, 221 

Municipalizing of water plants, 58, 91 

Mystic Pond, 49 

Nashua River, 193 

National Academy of Sciences, 50 

National Board of Health, 7, 50, 53 

Natural Standard, 69 

Natural waters, 76 

"Nature," 120 

Nessler's reagent, 280 

New Jersey Board of Health, 150 

New York State Department of Health, 

99 
New York water supply, 45, 11 1 
Nichols, Professor William Ripley, 49 
Nitrates, 54, 120, 121, 173, 250 

ratio to chlorine, 122 
Nitrite determinations, 82 
Nitrites, 13, 105, 112 

test for, 236-238 
Nitrogen compounds, 67 

proportion of carbon to, 53 
Normals, 67 
Nowack, Seegen and, 7 
Nuisance 47, 141, 148, 187 
Numerical standards, 64 

Odor, 13, 98, 124, 125, 204, 23s 

Oiled streets, 4 

Organic carbonaceous matter, 76 

growth, science of, 50 

matter, decomposition of, 54 

matter in air, 51 

matter in water, 52, 53, 55 
Organisms, 54, 128, 157, 161 

low, in water, 55 

pathogenic, 116 

visible, 100 
Oscillaria, 130 
Outfit, portable, 104, 139 
Overclothing, 14 



Overflows, 31 

Oxidation, 132, 187 
prevented by ice, 165 

Oxidizing, 165 

Oxygen, 118 

consumed, 256-259 
dissolved, 131-136, 251-254 

Ozone, I, 13, 136, 151 

Ozonized sample, 152 

Paris sewage, 199 

water supply, 26-27, 98 
Parker and Kenwood, 13 
Pathogenic germs, 63 
Pennsylvania Supreme Court, 59 
Percolation, 143, 154 
Permanganate, 52, 280, 287 
Peru, 27 

Petterson Palmquist apparatus, 227 
Philadelphia water supply, 156 
Physical character, 72 

standards, 65 
Plagues, 20 
Plant growths, 133 
Plenum system of ventilation, 11 
Pohcing a watershed, 144 
Polluted fluid, 161 

source, 143 

water, 67, 100, 156 
Polluting matter, 69, 175 

underground suppUes, 201 
Pollution, 62, 112, 144, 146, 148, 157, 
179, 194, 195 

of Massachusetts streams, 108 

of water supplies, 49 

of water supply in New York, 99 

past, 54 

progressive, 139 

proved, 100 

soil, 150 

sources of, 38, 97, 138 
Popular science, 145 
Population, countr)^ 95 
Potability, treatment for, 208-209 
Potable waters, 152 
Potassium permanganate, 7, 167 



INDEX 



301 



Precaution, 153 

Present character of water, 76 

Prevention, 32, 85, 95, 144, 207 

true, 145 
Preventive medicine, iii, iv, 222 
Profit, 5 

''Prospecting," 91 

Prospecting for town water supply, 92 
Protection against epidemics, 60 

of soil, 1 73 

of water, 98 

of water supplies in Virginia, 98 
Protective distance, 144 
Ptomaines, 8, 54 
Public opinion, 94 

-service engineer, 222 
"Public Water Supplies," 70 
Pumpelly, Prof. R., 50 
Pumping machinery, 40 

stations, 34 
Pure- water reservoir, 31 
Purification, 87, 91, 102, 154, 156, 157, 
158, 186, 190, 194, 207, 208 

by life, 116 

in stages, 187 

hmited, 133 

tests, 190 
Purifying, 160 
Purity, standards of, 70 
Putrescibility tests, 186 
Putrefaction, 54 

Quality, 32, 37, 62, loi, 106 

and quantity of water, preservation 

of, 107 
of water dependent on habits of 
people, 90 
Quantity of water, 142 

Rain, impounded, chief supply of cities, 

86 
Rain water, 93 
Rainfall, 85, 91, loi 
Ransome, 7 
" Recent Advances in Physiology and 

Biochemistry," 8 



Recommendations of the Conservancy 

, Board, 181-183 

References, book, 230 

Regeneration, 32, 116 

Remsen, Dr. Ira, 7, 51 

Renovation, 32, 153, 154, 157 

Repentant waters, 64 

Report of Massachusetts State Board of 
Health, 49, 184, 198 
of Metropohtan Water and Sewerage 

Board, 37, 38 
on sample of polluted water, 100 
to Newport, R. I., Board of Health, 

135 

Winnipeg, 98 
Reports on samples, suggestions for, 

242-243 
Reservoir, 21, 22, 23, 28, 31, 34, 35, 95, 
123 

Ashland, 123 

at St. Foi, 24 

Chestnut Hill, i^, 37 

collecting, 117 

Framingham, 36 

pure- water, 31 

settling, 40 

Sudbury, 35, 36 

Wachusett, 34, 37 
Responsibihty, State, 65 
Richardson, Dr. Benjamin Ward, 47 
Rideal, 275 
Risk of infection, 61 
Rivers Commission, 85 

for disposal of waste, 20 
Rivers Pollution Commission, 47, 52 
Rogers, Wilham Barton, 51 
Roman supphes, 20, 22-24 
Rotation of crops, laws of, for water, 123 
Rothhampstead experiment, 134 
Rumford, Count, 46 
Rural engineer, 221 

sanitation, 137, 146 
Russel, Turneaure and, 70 

Safe water, 76 

St. Foi, reservoir at, 24 



302 



INDEX 



St. Paul, 45 

Salt as detective, 147 

Samples, collection of water, 243-245 

of soil, 113 

transportation of water, 243 

water, 56, 81 
Sand filters, notes on, 161-168 

filtration, 142 
Sanitarian, iv, 13, 62, 88, 170, 197 
Sanitary analysis, 84 

condition of farm, 147 

cranks, 63 

education, 5, 95, 98, 146 

engineer, iii, v, vii, 10, 13, 58, 79, 80, 
88, 92, 99, 138, 141, 146, 152, 160, 
205, 216, 217, 220 

exhibits, 140, 142 

expert, 50, 145 

idea, the, 46 

inspector, 12, 146, 150 

law, the first, 80 

legislation, 51, 107, 146 

living, education to, 5 

maintenance, 140, 146 

maxims, 146 

problem, 185, 195 

progress, watchwords of, 141 

reasons for treatment of wastes, 206- 
208 

reforms, opposition to, 201 

science born, 48 

structure, 140 

survey, 97, 139 

water analysis, 147, 233, 255, 263, 284 

ways, 144 
Sanitation, iii, iv, vii, 107 

city, 142 

community, 61 

rural, 137, 146 

schools of, 145 

soils and, 51 
Saturation of the soil, 201 
Saving of water, 45 
Screening, 207, 208 
Seashore cities, wastes of, 196 
Sedimentation, 40, 108, 154, 192 



Sedimentation basin, 29, 30 
Seegen and Nowack, 7 
Seepage, 95, loi, 117, 147 
Self-purification of rivers, 108, 158, 175 
Septic tank, 102, 158, 171, 209 
Settling reservoirs, 40 
Sewage, 47, 173, 180, 182, 183 

analysis, 265-275 

city, 184-185, 206 

farming, 88, 103 

farms, near Paris, 201 

field, 102 

filtration, 157 

hospital, 187 

in Berlin, 199 

in Paris, 199 

irrigation, 45, 198 

pollution, 58, 76 

purified for steam plant, 29 

sampling, 265 

treatment, 153, 209 

varieties of, 186, 269 
"Sewage and Bacterial Purification of 

Sewage," 275 
Sewers, flow of, 51 
Shrine, 19 

Slow sand filters, 165 
Smart, Dr. Charles, 51, 53, 55 
Smead, system of ventilation, ii 
Snow, Dr. John, 47 
Soakage, effect on color, 32 
Softening plants, 143 
Soils and sanitation, 51 
Soil, character of, important, 91 ♦ 

clean, 107 

dangers of unclean, 103 
Soil filtration, 179 

pollution, 137 

protection, 102, 173 
Soloids, 104 

Source, examination of, 67, 68 
Sources, 71, 102 

of public water supply in Massa- 
chusetts, 85 

of water supplies, 89 

polluted by cities, 90 



INDEX 



303 



South America, water supplies in, 27-28 

Spain, Roman aqueducts in, 25 

Spaniards, vandalism of, 28 

Spot Pond, 34, 2>1 

Spring at Tunbridge Wells, 144 

water polluted, 99 
Springs, 89, 90 

in Judea, 21 
Standard determinations, 84 

natural, 69 

solutions, 277-279 
Standards, 28 

in water analysis, permanent, 277-279 

numerical, 64 

of air, 6-9 

of purity, 60-75 

of safe water, 112 

[of safety], 160 

physical, 65 
State Board of Health, 73, 74, 145 
State Medicine, 48 
Sterilization, 112, 116, 130, 161, 196 
Storage, in, 116, 119, 161 

basins, legal protection of, 85 

husbanding rainfall by, 85 

of water high in nitrates, 122 
Straining, 157, 165, 185 

tanks, 207 
Streams Examination Commission, 71 
Streams, unreliable, 143 
Streptococci, 68, 69 
Sudbury Dam, 36 

Reservoir, 35, 36 

River, 33, 35 
Sunlight, 28, 149 
Surface flow, 89 

supplies, 87 

water, 143, 152, 154 
Survey, sanitary, 139 
"Survey of London," 25 
Suspicious water, 55, 76 

Tables, 35, 67, 69, 71, 73, 83, 89, 108, 
109, no, 128, 132, 133, 147, 159, 
163, 167, 176, 177, 191, 194, 200, 
227, 233, 254, 255, 263, 276, 284 



Tablets for field work, 104 

Talbot, Marion, 7 

Technique of water interpretation, 262 

" Technology Quarterly," 7, 148 

Temperature, 6, 8, 132, 133, 148, 185 

Temples, 24 

Testimony of inhabitants, unreliable, 

104, IDS 

Testing apparatus, 10 

strained products, 239-241 
Test, air supply, 225 

for ammonia, 235 

for nitrites, 236-238 

for strength of sewage, 266 

of odor, 235 

ventilation, 225 
Tests, 73, 74, 77, 78 

for dangerous substances, 84 

purification, 190 

water, 232-239 
Tezcoco water supply, 27 
Thames Commissioners, 181-183 
Thames Valley, 1 80-1 81 
Thresh, J. C, 67 
Tidy process, 52, 53, 278 
Time for investigation, 94 

processes, 102 
Total nitrogen in sewage, 268 

sohds, 259-260 
in sewage, 266 
Town supplies, 97 
Trade wastes, 158, 161, 172, 184, 206, 

275-276 
Transportation of water samples, 243- 

24s 
Treated samples, 76 
Treatment of sewage, 270-275 
Tuberculosis, i, 8, 14 
Tunbridge Wells, spring at, 144 
Turbidity, 152, 153 

of sewage, determination of, 234 
Tumeaure and Russel, 70 
Tyi3es of waterworks, 28 
Typhoid, 29, 145, 147, 149, 174 

bacilh, 98 

epidemic, 99 



304 



INDEX 



Ufflemann, 7 

Underground circulation, 93 

waters, 97 
"U. S. Geol. Survey, Water Supply and 

Irrigation," 188 
Uroglena, 105 
Utilization of wastes, 169, 190, 197- 



Vassar College, 199 

Sewage Farm, 199-201 
Vegetation, decaying, 120 
Ventilation, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13 

test, 225 
Venturi meters, 42 
Virginia, health commissioner of, 98 

protection of water supplies in, 98 
Vital statistics, 47 

Wachusett, 32, 33, 35 

Dam, 34 

Reservoir, 34, 37, 113 
Walker, General Francis A., 51 
Wanklyn, 53, 64, 112, 121, 127 
Waring, Colonel, 51, 170, 171, 192 
Waring filter, 207 
Washing (of sand), 43-44 
Waste disposal, 12, 20, 45, 143, 144, 
146, 150, 203-213 

in water supply, 195 
Wastefulness, 116, 143 
Wastes, 87, 136, 158, 161, 169, 172, 184, 

196, 206, 203-215, 275-276 
Water a national asset, 106 

a necessity, 19 

Act, Metropolitan, ^s 

analysis, sanitary, 55, 147 

artificially treated, 63 

assay, 75-83, 205, 281-287 

Board, MetropoHtan, 32, 33 

carriage of wastes, 190, 196, 205 

Charles River, 151 
Waters, of Chili, 121 

circulation a science, 93 

Commissioners, 29 

drinking, 48, loi 



Waters, economic value of, 19 
filtered, 58 

natural untreated, 62 
naturally treated ground, 62 
organic matter in, 52 
polluted, 58, 100, 156 

of shrines, 20 
potable, 152 
power, 107-108 
purification, electrical processes of, 

136 
quantity of, 142 
repentant, 64 
reservoir, 123 
rights, 187-190 
sample, examination of, 246 
samples, 56 
supplies, 19-45, 152, 157 

in South America, 27-28 

Municipalization of, 58 

policing of, 140 

pollution of, 49 

protection of, no 

protection of, in Virginia, 98 

Roman, 20, 22-24 
supply of Jerusalem, 21 

of London, 25-26 

New York, 45 

Paris, 26-27, 100 

Philadelphia, 156 

pollution of, in New York, 99 

purity of, 150 

Tezcoco, 27 
surface, 143, 152 
surveys, 104-106 
suspicious, 65 
table, 96, 102, 143 
tests, 232-239 
vapor, 9 
wholesome, 59 
-borne diseases, 48 
"Water Supply," 65, 66, 170 
"Water Supply and Irrigation," 157 
Waters, ground, 152 
Watershed, 32,34, 85, 91, 96, loi, 104, 

107, 144 



INDEX 



305 



Watersheds, inspection of, 79 

patrolling of, 141 

policing of, 134 

regeneration of, 111-136 
Watertown, Mass., 168 
Waterworks, 117 

ancient, 19-28 

Boston, 123 

economic and sanitary efficiency of, 
60-84 

Metropolitan, 32 

modern, 28-44 

Roman, in Gaul, 24 

t>'pes of, 28 
Weequahic Lake, 118 
Welcome, Burroughs and, 104 
W^elfare, human, 219 



Well, Joseph's, at Cairo, 22 

Well water, 145, 149 

Wells, 19, 90, 97, 98, loi, 141, 145, 201 

in Judea, 21 

on abandoned farms, 98 
Wells, H. G., 216 
West Riding, 158 
Weston, Robert Spurr, ^t, 
Weston Aqueduct, 36, 37 
Whitten, H. W., 14 
Wholesomeness of water, 66 
Williams, Dr. Stenhouse, 120 
Winkler's method, 131 
Winnipeg report, 98 
Wisconsin, Bulletin of University of, 

209, 210 
Worcester, Mass., 188, 192 



Short-title Catalogue 

OF THE 

PUBLICATIONS 

OF 

JOHN WILEY & SONS 

New York 

London: CHAPMAN & HALL, Limited 



ARRANGED UNDER SUBJECTS 



Descriptive circulars sent on application. Books marked with an asterisk (*) are 
sold at net prices only. All books are bound in cloth unless otherwise stated. 



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AGRICULTURE— HORTICULTURE— FORESTRY. 

Armsby's Principles of Animal Nutrition 8vo, $4 00 

Budd and Hansen's American Horticultural Manual: 

Part I. Propagation, Culture, and Improvement 12mo, 

Part II. Systematic Pomology , 12mo, 

Elliott's Engineering for Land Drainage 12mo, 

Practical Farm Drainage. (Second Edition, Rewritten.) 12mo, 

Graves's Forest Mensuration 8vo, 

Principles of Handling Woodlands. (In Press.) 

Green's Principles of American Forestry 12mo, 

Grotenfelt's Principles of Modern Dairy Practice. (WoU.) 12mo, 

* Herrick's Denatured or Industrial Alcohol 8vo, 

Kemp and Waugh's Landscape Gardening. (New Edition, Rewritten. In 

Press.) 

* McKay and Larsen's Principles and Practice of Butter-making 8vo, 

Maynard's Landscape Gardening as Applied to Home Decoration 12mo, 

Sanderson's Insects Injurious to Staple Crops 12mo, I 50 

Sanderson and Headlee's Insects Injurious to Garden Crops. (In Prepa- 
ration.) 

* Schwarz's Longleaf Pine in Virgin Forest 12mo, 1 25 

Solotaroff's Shade Trees in Towns and Cities. (In Press.) 

Stockbridge's Rocks and Soils 8vo, 2 50 

Win ton's Microscopy of Vegetable Foods 8vo, 7 50 

Woll's Handbook for Farmers and Dairymen 16mo, 1 50 



ARCHITECTURE. 

Baldwin's Steam Heating for Buildings 12mo, 2 50 

Berg's Buildings and Structures of American Railroads 4to, 5 00 

Birkmire's Architectural Iron and Steel 8vo, 3 50 

Compound Riveted Girders as Applied in Buildings 8vo, 2 00 

Planning and Construction of American Theatres 8vo, 3 00 

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Birkmire's Planning and Construction of High Office Buildings 8vo, 

Skeleton Construction in Buildings 8vo, 

Briggs's Modem American School Buildings 8vo, 

Byrne's Inspection of Materials and Wormanship Employed in Construction. 

16mo, 

Carpenter's Heating and Ventilating of Buildings Svo, 

* Corthell's Allowable Pressure on Deep Foundations 12mo, 

Fieitag's Architectural Engineering 8vo, 

Fireproofing of Steel Buildings Svo, 

Gerhard's Guide to Sanitary Inspections. (Fourth Edition, Entirely Re- 
vised and Enlarged.) 12mo, 

* Modern Baths and Bath Houses Svo, 

Sanitation of Public Buildings 12mo, 

Theatre Fires and Panics 12mo, 

* The Water Supply, Sewerage and Plumbing of Modem City Buildings. 

Svo, 

Johnson's Statics by Algebraic and Graphic Methods Svo, 

Kellaway's How to Lay Out Suburban Home Grounds Svo, 

Kidder's Architects' and Builders' Pocket-book 16mo, mor., 

Merrill's Stones for Building and Decoration Svo, 

Monckton's Stair-building 4to, 

Patton's Practical Treatise on Foundations Svo, 

Peabody's Naval Architecture Svc, 

Rice's Concrete-block Manufacture Svo, 

Richey's Handbook for Superintendents of Construction 16mo, mor. 

Building Foreman's Pocket Book and Ready Reference. . 16mo, mor. 
* Building Mechanics' Ready Reference Series: « 

* Carpenters' and Woodworkers' Edition 16mo, mor. 

* Cement Workers' and Plasterers' Edition 16mo, mor. 

* Plumbers', Steam-Fitters', and Tinners' Edition. . . 16mo, mor. 

* Stone- and Brick-masons' Edition 16mo, mor. 

Sabin's House Painting 12mo, 

Siebert and Biggin's Modern Stone-cutting and Masonry Svo, 

Snow's Principal Species of Wood Svo, 

Wait's Engineering and Architectural Jurisprudence , Svo, 

Sheep, 

Law of Contracts Svo, 

Law of Operations Prelirhinary to Construction in Engineering and 

Architecture Svo, 

Sheep, 

Wilson's Air Conditioning 12mo, 

Worcester and Atkinson's Small Hospitals, Establishment and Maintenance, 
Suggestions for Hospital Architecture, with Plans for a Small 

Hospital 12mo, 1 25 



ARMY AND NAVY. 

Bernadou's Smokeless Powder, Nitro-cellulose, and the Theory of the Cellu- 
lose Molecule 12mo, 2 50 

Chase's Art of Pattern Making 12mo, 2 50 

Screw Propellers and Marine Propulsion Svo, 3 00 

* Cloke's Enlisted Specialists' Examiner Svo, 2 00 

* Gunner's Examiner Svo, 1 50 

Craig's Azimuth 4tu, 3 50 

Crehore and Squier's Polarizing Photo-chronograph Svo, 3 00 

* Davis's Elements of Law Svo, 2 50 

* Treatise on the Military Law of United States Svo, 7 00 

* Dudley's Military Law and the Procedure of Courts-martial. ..Large 12mo, 2 50 
Durand's Resistance and Propulsion of Ships Svo, 5 00 

* Dyer's Handbook of Light Artillery 12mo. 3 00 

Eissler's Modern High Explosives Svo, 4 00 

* Fiebeger's Text-book on Field Fortification Large 12mo, 2 00 

Hamilton and Bond's The Gunner's Catechism ISmo, 1 00 

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* Hoff 's Elementary Naval Tactics 8vo, $1 50 

Ingalls's Handbook of Problems hi Direct Fire 8vo, 4 00 

* Lissak's Ordnance and Gunnery. 8vo, 6 00 

* Ludlow's Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables Svo, 1 00 

* Lyons's Treatise on Electromagnetic Phenomena. Vols. L and II.. Svo, each, 6 00 

* Alahan's Permanent Fortifications. (Mercur.) Svo, half mor. 7 50 

Manual for Courts-martial 16mo,mor. 1 50 

* Mercur's Attack of Fortified Places 12mo, 2 00 

* Elements of the Art of War Svo, 4 00 

Nixon's Adjutants' Manual 24mo, 1 00 

Peabody's Naval Architecture Svo, 7 50 

* Phelps's Practical Marine Surveying Svo, 2 50 

Putnam's Nautical Charts Svo, 2 00 

Rust's Ex-meridian Altitude, Azimuth and Star-Finding Tables Svo, 5 00 

* Selkirk's Catechism of Manual of Guard Duty 24mo, 50 

Sharpe's Art of Subsisting Armies in War ISmo, mor, 1 50 

*Taylor's Speed and Power of Ships. 2 vols. Text Svo, plates oblong 4to, 7 50 

* Tupes and Poole's Manual of Bayonet Exercises and Musketry Fencing, 

24mo, leather, 50 

* Weaver's Military Explosives Svo, 3 00 

* WoodhuU's MiUtary Hygiene for Officers of the Line Large 12mo, 1 50 



ASSAYING. 

Betts's Lead Refining by Electrolysis Svo, 4 00 

*Butler's Handbook of Blowpipe Analysis 16mo, 75 

Fletcher's Practical Instructions in Quantitative Assaying with the Blowpipe. 

16mo, mor. 1 50 

Furman and Pardee's Manual of Practical Assaying Svo, 3 00 

Lodge's Notes on Assaying and Metallurgical Laboratory Experiments.. Svo, 3 00 

Low's Technical Methods of Ore Analysis Svo, 3 00 

Miller's Cyanide Process 12mo. 1 00 

Manual of Assaying 12mo, 1 00 

Minet's Production of Aluminum and its Industrial Use. (Waldo.). . .12mo, 2 50 

Ricketts and Miller's Notes on Assaying Svo. 3 00 

Robine and Lenglen's Cyanide Industry. (Le Clerc.) Svo, 4 00 

* Seamon's Manual for Assayers and Chemists Large 12mo, 2 50 

Ulke's Modem Electrolytic Copper Refining Svo, 3 00 

Wilson's Chlorination Process 12mo, 1 50 

Cyanide Processes 12mo, 1 50 



ASTRONOMY. 

Comstock's Field Astronomy for Engineers Svo, 

Craig's Azimuth 4to, 

Crandall's Text-book on Geodesy and Least Squares Svo, 

Doolittle's Treatise on Practical Astronomy Svo, 

Hayford's Text-book of Geodetic Astronomy Svo, 

Hosmer's Azimuth 16mo, mor. 

* Text-book on Practical Astronomy Svo, 

Merriman's Elements of Precise Surveying and Geodesy Svo, 

* Michie and Harlow's Practical Astronomy Svo, 

Rust's Ex-meridian Altitude, Azimuth and Star-Finding Tables Svo, 

* White's Elements of Theoretical and Descriptive Astronorny 12mo, 



CHEMISTRY. 

* Abderhalden's Physiological Chemistry in Thirty Lectures. (Hall and 

Defren.) Svo, 5 00 

* Abegg's Theory of Electrolytic Dissociation, (von Ende.) 12mo, 1 25 

Alexeyeff's General Principles of Organic Syntheses. (Matthews.) Svo, 3 00 

Allen's Tables for Iron Analysis Svo, 3 00 

Armsby's Principles of Animal Nutrition Svo, 4 00 

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Arnold's Compendium of Chemistry. (Mandel.) Large 12mo, $3 50 

Association of State and National Food and Dairy Departments, Hartford 

Meeting, 1906 8vo, 3 00 

Jamestown Meeting, 1907 8vo, 3 00 

Austen's Notes for Chemical Students 12mo, 1 50 

Baskerville's Chemical Elements. (In Preparation.) 

Bernadou's Smokeless Powder. — Nitro-cellulose, and Theory of the Cellulose 

Molecule 12mo, 2 50 

* Biltz's Introduction to Inorganic Chemistry. (Hall and Phelan.). . . 12mo, 1 25 

Laboratory Methods of Inorganic Chemistry. (Hall and Blanchard.) 

8vo, 3 00 

* Blanchard's Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry 12mo, 1 00 

* Browning's Introduction to the Rarer Elements '. Svo, 1 50 

* Butler's Handbook of Blowpipe Analysis 16mo, 75 

* Claassen's Beet-sugar Manufacture. (Hall and Rolfe.) Svo, 3 00 

Classen's Quantitative Chemical Analysis by Electrolysis. (Boltwood.).8vo, 3 00 

Cohn's Indicators and Test-papers 12mo, 2 00 

Tests and Reagents 8vo, 3 00 

* Danneel's Electrochemistry. (Merriam.) 12mo, 1 25 

Dannerth's Methods of Textile Chemistry 12mo, 2 00 

Duhem's Thermodynamics and Chemistry. (Burgess.) 8vo, 4 00 

Efiront's Enzymes and their Applications. (Prescott.) 8vo, 3 00 

Eissler's Modem High Explosives Svo. 4 00 

* Fischer's Oedema Svo, 2 00 

* Physiology of AHmentation Large 12mo, 2 00 

Fletcher's Practical Instructions in Quantitative Assaying with the Blowpipe. 

16mo, mor. 1 50 

Fowler's Sewage Works Analyses 12mo, 2 00 

Fresenius's Manual of Qualitative Chemical Analysis. (Wells.) Svo, 5 00 

Manual of Qualitative Chemical Analysis. Part I. Descriptive. (Wells.)8vo, 3 00 

Quantitative Chemical Analysis. (Cohn.) 2 vols 'Svc, 12 50 

When Sold Separately, Vol. I. $6. Vol. II. $8. 

Fuertes's Water and Public Health 12mo, 1 50 

Furman and Pardoe's Manual of Practical Assaying Svo, 3 00 

* Getman's Exercises in Physical Chemistry 12mo, 2 00 

Gill's Gas and Fuel Analysis for Engineers 12mo, 1 25 

* Gooch and Browning's Outlines of Qualitative Chemical Analysis. 

Large 12mo, 1 25 

Grotenfelt's Principles of Modem Dairy Practice. (Woll.) 12mo, 2 00 

Groth's Introduction to Chemical Crystallography (Marshall) 12mo, 1 25 

Hammarsten's Text-book of Physiological Chemistry. (Mandel.) Svo, 4 00 

Hanausek's Microscopy of Technical Products. (Winton.) Svo, 5 00 

* Haskins and Macleod's Organic Chemistry 12mo, 2 00 

* Herrick's Denatured or Industrial Alcohol..., Svo, 4 00 

Hinds's Inorganic Chemistry Svo, 3 00 

* Laboratory Manual for Students 12mo, 1 00 

* Holleman's Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry for Beginners. 

(Walker.) 12mo. 1 00 

Text-book of Inorganic Chemistry. (Cooper.) Svo, 2 50 

Text-book of Organic Chemistry. (Walker and Mott.) Svo, 2 50 

* HoUey's Lead and Zinc Pigments Large 12mo, 3 00 

HoUey and Ladd's Analysis of Mixed Paints, Color Pigments, and Varnishes. 

Large 12mo. 2 50 

Hopkins's Oil-chemists' Handbook Svo, 3 00 

Jackson's Directions for Laboratory Work in Physiological Chemistry. .Svo, 1 25 
Johnson's Rapid Methods for the Chemical Analysis of Special Steels, Steel- 
making Alloys and Graphite Large 12mo, 3 00 

Landauer's Spectrum Analysis. (Tingle.) Svo, 3 00 

Lassar-Cohn's Application of Some General Reactions to Investigations in 

Organic Chemistry. (Tingle.) 12mo, 1 00 

Leach's Inspection and Analysis of Food with Special Reference to State 

Control Svo, 7 50 

Lob's Electrochemistry of Organic Compounds. (Lorenz.) Svo, 3 00 

Lodge's Notes on Assaying and Metallurgical Laboratory Experiments.. Svo, 3 00 

Low's Technical Method of Ore Analysis Svo, 3 00 

Lowe's Paint for Steel Structures 12mo, 1 00 

Lunge's Techno-chemical Analysis. (Cohn.) 12mo, 1 00 

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* McKay and Larsen's Principles and Practice of Butter-making 8vo, $1 50 

Maire's Modem Pigments and their Vehicles 12mo, 2 00 

Mandel's Handbook for Bio-chemical Laboratory 12mo, 1 50. 

* Martin's Laboratory Guide to Qualitative Analysis with the Blowpipe 

12mo, 60^ 

Mason's Examination of Water. (Chemical and Bacteriological.) 12mo, 1 25 

Water-supply. (Considered Principally from a Sanitary Standpoint.) 

8vo, 

* Mathewson's First Principles of Chemical Theory 8vo, 

Matthews's Laboratory Manual of Dyeing and Textile Chemistry 8vo, 

Textile Fibres. 2d Edition, Rewritten 8vo, 

* Meyer's Determination of Radicles in Carbon Compounds. (Tingle.) 

Third Edition 12mo, 

Miller's Cyanide Process 12mo, 

Manual of Assaying 12mo, 

Minet's Production of Aluminum and its Industrial Use. (Waldo.). ..12mo, 

* Mittelstaedt's Technical Calculations for Sugar Works. (Bourbakis.) 12mo, 

Mixter's Elementary Text-book of Chemistry 12mo, 

Morgan's Elements of Physical Chemistry 12mo, 

Outline of the Theory of Solutions and its Results 12mo, 

* Physical Chemistry for Electrical Engineers 12mo, 

* Moore's Outlines of Organic Chemistry 12mo, 

Morse's Calculations used in Cane-sugar Factories 16mo, mor. 

* Muir's History of Chemical Theories and Laws 8vo, 

MuUiken's General Method for the Identification of Pure Organic Compounds. 

Vol. I. Compounds of Carbon with Hydrogen and Oxygen. Large 8vo, 

Vol. II. Nitrogenous Compounds. (In Preparation.) 

Vol. III. The Commercial Dyestuffs Large 8vo, 

* Nelson's Analysis of Drugs and Medicines 12mo, 

Ostwald's Conversations on Chemistry. Part One. (Ramsey.) 12mo, 

Part Two. (TurnbuU.) 12mo, 

Introduction to Chemistry. (Hall and Williams.) (In Press.) 
Owen and Standage's" Dyeing and Cleaning of Textile Fabrics 12mo, 

* Palmer's Practical Test Book of Chemistry 12mo, 

* Pauli's Physical Chemistry in the Service of Medicine. (Fischer.). .12mo, 
Penfield's Tables of Minerals, Including the Use of Minerals and Statistics 

of Domestic Production 8vo, 

Pictet's Alkaloids and their Chemical Constitution. (Biddle.) 8vo, 

Poole's Calorific Power of Fuels 8vo, 

Prescott and Winslow's Elements of Water Bacteriology, with Special Refer- 
ence to Sanitary Water Analysis 12mo, 

* Reisig's Guide to Piece-Dyeing 8vo, 

Richards and Woodman's Air, Water, and Food from a Sanitary Stand- 
point 8vo. 

Ricketts and Miller's Notes on Assaying 8vo, 

Rideal's Disinfection and the Preservation of Food 8vo, 

Sewage and the Bacterial Purification of Sewage 8vo, 

Riggs's Elementary Manual for the Chemical Laboratory 8vo, 

Robine and Lenglen's Cyanide Industry. (Le Clerc.) 8vo, 

Ruddiman's Incompatibilities in Prescriptions 8vo, 

Whys in Pharmacy 12mo, 

* Ruer's Elements of Metallography. (Mathewson.) 8vo, 

Sabin's Industrial and Artistic Technology of Paint and Varnish 8vo, 

Salkowski's Physiological and Pathological Chemistry. (Orndorff.) 8vo, 

Schimpf 's Essentials of Volumetric Analysis 12mo, 

Manual of Volumetric Analysis. (Fifth Edition, Rewritten) 8vo, 

* Qualitative Chemical Analysis '. 8vo, 

* Seamon's Manual for Assayers and Chemists Large 12mo, 

Smith's Lecture Notes on Chemistry for Dental Students 8vo, 

Spencer's Handbook for Cane Sugar Manufacturers 16mo, mor. 

Handbook for Chemists of Beet-sugar Houses 16mo, mor. 

Stockbridge's Rocks and Soils 8vo, 

Stone's Practical Testing of Gas and Gas Meters 8vo, 

* Tillman's Descriptive General Chemistry 8vo, 

* Elementary Lessons in Heat 8vo, 

Treadwell's Qualitative Analysis. (Hall.) " 8vo, 

Quantitative Analysis. (Hall.) Svo, 

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Tumeaure and Russell's Public Water-supplies 8vo, $5 00 

Van Deventer's Physical Chemistry for Beginners. (Boltwood.) 12mo, 

Venable's Methods and Devices for Bacterial Treatment of Sewage 8vo. 

Ward and Whipple's Freshwater Biology. (In Press.) 

Ware's Beet-sugar Manufacture and Refining. Vol. 1 8vo, 

Vol.11 Svo, 

Washington's Manual of the Chemical Analysis of Rocks Svo, 

* Weaver's Military Explosives Svo, 

Wells's Laboratory Guide in Qualitative Chemical Analysis Svo, 

Short Course in Inorganic Qualitative Chemical Analysis for Engineering 
Students 12mo, 

Text-book of Chemical Arithmetic 12mo, 

Whipple's Microscopy of Drinking-water Svo, 

Wilson's Chlorination Process 12mo, 

Cyanide Processes 12mo, 

Winton's Microscopy of Vegetable Foods Svo, 

Zsigmondy's Colloids and the Ultramicroscope. (Alexander.). .Large 12mo, 



CIVIL ENGINEERING. 

BRIDGES AND ROOFS. HYDRAULICS. MATERIALS OF ENGINEER- 
ING. RAILWAY ENGINEERING. 

Baker's Engineers' Surveying Instruments 12mo, 

Bixby's Graphical Computing Table Paper 19i X 24| inches. 

Breed and Hosmer's Principles and Practice of Surveying. Vol. I. Elemen- 
tary Surveying Svo, 

Vol. II. Higher Surveying Svo, 

* Burr's Ancient and Modern Engineering and the Isthmian Canal Svo, 

Comstock's Field Astronomy for Engineers Svo, 

* Corthell's Allowable Pressure on Deep Foundations 12mo, 

Crandall's Text-book on Geodesy and Least Squares Svo, 

Davis's Elevation and Stadia Tables Svo, 

Elliott's Engineering for Land Drainage 12mo, 

* Fiebeger's Treatise on Civil Engineering Svo, 

Flemer's Photographic Methods and Instruments Svo, 

Folwell's Sewerage. (Designing and Maintenance.) Svo, 

Freitag's Architectural Engineering Svo, 

French and Ives's Stereotomy Svo, 

Goodhue's Municipal Improvements 12mo, 

* Hauch and Rice's Tables of Quantities for Preliminary Estimates. . . 12mo, 

Hayford's Text-book of Geodetic Astronomy Svo, 

Hering's Ready Reference Tables (Conversion Factors.) 16mo. mor. 

Hosmer's Azimuth 16mo, mor. 

* Text-book on Practical Astronomy Svo, 

Howe's Retaining Walls for Earth 12mo, 

* Ives's Adjustments of the Engineer's Transit and Level 16mo, bds. 

Ives and Hilts's Problems in Surveying, Railroad Surveying and Geod- 
esy 16mo, mor. 

* Johnson (J.B.) and Smith's Theory and Practice of Surveying . Large 12mo, 
Johnson's (L. J.) Statics by Algebraic and Graphic Methods Svo, 

* Kinnicutt, Winslow and Pratt's Sewage Disposal Svo, 

* Mahan's Descriptive Geometry Svo, 

Merriman's Elements of Precise Surveying and Geodesy Svo, 

Merriman and Brooks's Handbook for Surveyors 16mo, mor. 

Nugent's Plane Surveying Svo, 

Ogden's Sewer Construction Svo, 

Sewer Design 12mo, 

Parsons's Disposal of Municipal Refuse Svo, 

Patton's Treatise on Civil Engineering Svo, half leather, 

Reed's Topographical Drawing and Sketching 4to, 

Rideal's Sewage and the Bacterial Purification of Sewage Svo, 

Riemer's Shaft-sinking under Difficult Conditions. (Corning and Peele.).8vo, 

Siebert and Biggin's Modern Stone-cutting and Masonry Svo, 

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Smith's Manual of Topographical Drawing. (McMillan.) 8vo, 

Soper's Air and Ventilation of Subways 12mo, 

* Tracy's Exercises in Surveying 12mo, mor. 

Tracy's Plane Surveying 16mo, mor. 

* Trautwine's Civil Engineer's Pocket-book 16mo, mor. 

Venable's Garbage Crematories in America 8vo, 

Methods and Devices for Bacterial Treatment of Sewage 8vo, 

Wait's Engineering and Architectural Jurisprudence 8vo, 

Sheep, 

Law of Contracts 8vo, 

Law of Operations Preliminary to Construction in Engineering and 

Architecture 8vo, 

Sheep, 
Warren's Stereotomy — Problems in Stone-cutting 8vo, 

* Waterbury's Vest-Pocket Hand-book of Mathematics for Engineers. 

2iX5f inches, mor. 

* Enlarged Edition, Including Tables mor. 

Webb's Problems in the Use and Adjustment of Engineering Instruments. 

16mo, mor. 
Wilson's Topographic Surveying 8vo, 



BRIDGES AND ROOFS. 

Boiler's Practical Treatise on the Construction of Iron Highway Bridges.. 8vo, 2 00 

* Thames River Bridge Oblong paper, 5 00 

Burr and Falk's Design and Construction of Metallic Bridges. 8vo, 5 00 

Influence Lines for Bridge and Roof Computations 8vo, 3 00 

Du Bois's Mechanics of Engineering. Vol. II Srnal) 4to, 10 00 

Foster's Treatise on Wooden Trestle Bridges 4to, 5 00 

Fowler's Ordinary Foundations 8vo, 3 50 

Greene's Arches in Wood, Iron, and Stone 8vo, 2 50 

Bridge Trusses. •. 8vo, 2 50 

Roof Trusses 8vo, 1 25 

Grimm's Secondary Stresses in Bridge Trusses 8vo, 2 50 

Heller's Stresses in Structures and the Accompanying Deformations.. . .8vo, 3 00 

Howe's Design of Simple Roof- trusses in Wood and Steel 8vo. 2 00 

Synimetrical Masonry Arches 8vo, 2 50 

Treatise on Arches . 8vo, 4 00 

* Jacoby's Structural Details, or Elements of Design in Heavy Framing, 8vo, 2 25 
Johnson, Bryan and Turneaure's Theory and Practice in the Designing' of 

Modern Framed Structures Small 4to, 10 00 

* Johnson, Bryan and Turneaure's Theory and Practice in the Designing of 

Modern Framed Structures. New Edition. Part 1 8vo, 3 00 

Part II. Rewritten. (In Press.) 

Merriman and Jacoby's Text-book on Roofs and Bridges: 

Part I. Stresses in Simple Trusses 8vo, 2 50 

Part II. Graphic Statics 8vo, 2 50 

Part III. Bridge Design 8vo, 2 50 

Part IV. Higher Structures 8vo, 2 50 

Sondericker's Graphic Statics, with Applications to Trusses, Beams, and 

Arches 8vo, 2 00 

Waddell's De Pontibus, Pocket-book for Bridge Engineers 16mo, mor. 2 00 

* Specifications for Steel Bridges 12mo, 50 

Waddell and Harrington's Bridge Engineering. (In Preparation.) 



HYDRAULICS. 

Barnes's Ice Formation 8vo, 3 00 

Bazin's Experiments upon the Contraction of the Liquid Vein Issuing from 

an Orifice. (Trautwine.) 8vo, 2 00 

Bovey 's Treatise on Hydraulics Svo, 5 00 

Church's Diagrams of Mean Velocity of Water in Open Channels. 

Oblong 4to, paper, 1 50 

Hydraulic Moto.'s Svo, 2 00 

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Coffin's Graphical Solution of Hydraulic Problems 16mo, mor. $2 50 

Flather's Dynamometers, and the Measurement of Power 12mo, 3 00 

Folwell's Water-supply Engineering 8vo, 4- OO 

Frizell's Water-power 8vo, 5 00 

Fuertes's Water and Public Health 12mo, 1 50 

Water-filtration Works 12mo, 2 50 

Ganguillet and Kutter's General Formula for the Uniform Flow of Water in 

Rivers and Other Channels. (Hering and Trautwine.) 8vo, 4 00 

Hazen's Clean Water and How to Get It Large 12mo, 1 50 

Filtration of Public Water-supplies Svo, 3 00 

Hazelhurst's Towers and Tanks for Water-works Svo, 2 50 

Herschel's 115 Experiments on the Carrying Capacity of Large, Riveted, Metal 

Conduits Svo, 2 00 

Hoyt and Grover's River Discharge Svo, 2 00 

Hubbard and Kiersted's Water-works Management and Maintenance. 

Svo, 4 00 

* Lyndon's Development and Electrical Distribution of Water Power. 

Svo, 3 00 
Mason's Water-supply. (Considered Principally from a Sanitary Stand- 
point.) : Svo, 4 00 

Merriman's Treatise on Hydraulics Svo, 5 00 

* Molitor's Hydraulics of Rivers, Weirs and Sluices Svo, 2 00 

* Morrison and Brodie's High Masonry Dam Design Svo, 1 50 

* Richards's Laboratory Notes on Industrial Water Analysis Svo, 50 

Schuyler's Reservoirs for Irrigation, Water-power, and Domestic Water- 
supply. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged Large Svo, 6 00 

* Thomas and Watt's Improvement of Rivers 4to, 6 00 

Turneaure and Russell's Public Water-supplies Svo, 5 00 

Wegmann's Design and Construction of Dams. 5th Ed., enlarged 4to, 6 CO 

Water-Supply of the City of New York from 165S to 1S95 4t.o, 10 00 

Whipple's Value of Pure Water Large 12mo, 1 00 

Williams and Hazen's Hydraulic Tables Svo, 1 50 

Wilson's Irrigation Engineering Svo, 4 00 

Wood's Turbines Svo, 2 50 



MATERIALS OP ENGINEERING. 

Baker's Roads and Pavements Svo, 5 00 

Treatise on Masonry Construction Svo, 

Black's United States Public Works Oblong 4to, 

Blanchard's Bituminous Roads. (In Preparation.) 

Bleininger's Manufacture of Hydraulic Cement. (In Preparation.) 

* Bovey's Strength of Materials and Theory of Structures Svo, 

Burr's Elasticity and Resistance of the Materials of Engineering Svo, 

Byrne's Highway Construction Svo, 

Inspection of the Materials and Workmanship Employed in Construction. 

16mo, 

Church's Mechanics of Engineering Svo, 

Du Bois's Mechanics of Engineering. 

Vol. I. Kinematics, Statics, Kinetics Small 4to, 

Vol. II. The Stresses in Framed Structures, Strength of Materials and 
Theory of Flexures Small 4to, 

* Eckel's Cements, Limes, and Plasters Svo, 

Stone and Clay Products used in Engineering. (In Preparation.) 
Fowler's Ordinary Foundations Svo, 

* Greene's Structural Mechanics Svo, 

* HoUey's Lead and Zinc Pigments Large 12mo, 

HoUey and Ladd's Analysis of Mixed Paints, Color Pigments and Varnishes. 

Large 12mo, 

* Hubbard's Dust Preventives and Road Binders Svo, 

Johnson's (C. M.) Rapid Methods for the Chemical Analysis of Special Steels, 

Steel-making Alloys and Graphite ., . .Large 12mo, 

Johnson's (J. B.) Materials of Construction . .Large Svo, 

Keep's Cast Iron Svo, 

Lanza's Applied Mechanics Svo, 

Lowe's Painty for Steel Structures 12mo, 

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Maire's Modem Pigments and their Vehicles 12mo, $2 00 

Maurer's Technical Mechanics 8vo, 

Merrill's Stones for Building and Decoration 8vo, 

Merriman's Mechanics of Materials 8vo, 

* Strength of Materials 12mo, 

Metcalf 's Steel. A Manual for Steel-users 12mo, 

Morrison's Highway Engineering , . . Svo, 

Patton's Practical Treatise on Foundations 8vo, 

Rice's Concrete Block Manufacture 8vo, 

Richardson's Modem Asphalt Pavement Svo, 

Richey's Building Foreman's Pocket Book and Ready Reference. 16mo,mor. 

* Cement Workers' and Plasterers' Edition (Building Mechanics' Ready 

Reference Series) 16mo, mor. 

Handbook for Superintendents of Construction 16mo, mor. 

* Stone and Brick Masons' Edition (Building Mechanics' Ready 

Reference Series) 16mo, mor. 

* Ries's Clays : Their Occurrence, Properties, and Uses 8vo, 

* Ries and Leighton's History of the Clay-working Industry of the United 

States 8vo. 

Sabin's Industrial and Artistic Technology of Paint and Varnish Svo, 

* Smith's Strength of Material 12mo 

Snow's Principal Species of Wood Svo, 

Spalding's Hydraulic Cement 12mo, 

Text-book on Roads and Pavements 12mo, 

* Taylor and Thompson's Extracts on Reinforced Concrete Design Svo, 

Treatise on Concrete, Plain and Reinforced Svo, 

Thurston's Materials of Engineering. In Three Parts Svo, 

Part I. Non-metallic Materials of Engineering and Metallurgy. . . . Svo, 

Part II. Iron and Steel Svo, 

Part III. A Treatise on Brasses, Bronzes, and Other Alloys and their 

Constituents Svo, 

Tillson's Street Pavements and Paving Materials Svo, 

* Trautwine's Concrete, Plain and Reinforced 16mo, 

Tumeaure and Maurer's Principles of Reinforced Concrete Construction. 

Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged Svo, 

Waterbury's Cement Laboratory Manual 12mo, 

Wood's (De V.) Treatise on the Resistance of Materials, and an Appendix on 

the Preservation of Timber Svo, 2 00 

Wood's (M. P.) Rustless Coatings: Corrosion and Electrolysis of Iron and 

Steel Svo, 4 00 



RAILWAY ENGINEERING. 

Andrews's Handbook for Street Railway Engineers 3X5 inches, mor. 

Berg's Buildings and Structures of American Railroads 4to, 

Brooks's Handbook of Street Railroad Location — .' 16mo, mor. 

Butts's Civil Engineer's Field-book 16mo, mor. 

Crandall's Railway and Other Earthwork Tables Svo, 

Crandall and Barnes's Railroad Surveying 16mo, mor. 

* Crockett's Methods for Earthwork Computations Svo, 

Dredge's History of the Pennsylvania Railroad. (1879) Paper, 

Fisher's Table of Cubic Yards Cardboard, 

Godwin's Railroad Engineers' Field-book and Explorers' Guide. . 16mo, mor. 
Hudson's Tables for Calculating the Cubic Contents of Excavations and Em- 
bankments Svo, 

Ives and Hilts's Problems in Surveying, Railroad Surveying and Geodesy 

16mo, mor. 

Molitor and Beard's Manual for Resident Engineers 16mo, 

Nagle's Field Manual for Railroad Engineers 16mo, mor. 

* Orrock's Railroad Structures and Estimates Svo, 

Philbrick's Field Manual for Engineers 16mo, mor. 

Raymond's Railroad Field Geometry 16mo, mor. 

Elements of Railroad Engineering Svo, 

Railroad Engineer's Field Book. (In Preparation.) 
Roberts' Track Formulae and Tables 16mo, mor. 3 00 

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Searles's Field Engineering 16mo, mor. S3 00 

Railroad Spiral 16mo, mor. 1 50 

Taylor's Prismoidal Formulae and Earthwork 8vo, 1 50 

* Trautwine's Field Practice of Laying Out Circular Curves for Railroads. 

12mo, mor. 2 50 
* Method of Calculating the Cubic Contents of Excavations and Em- 
bankments by the Aid of Diagrams 8vo, 2 00 

Webb's Economics of Railroad Construction Large 12mo, 2 50 

Railroad Construction 16mo, mor. 5 00 

Wellington's Economic Theory of the Location of Railways Large 12mo, 5 00 

Wilson's Elements of Railroad-Track and Construction 12mo, 2 00 



DRAWING. 



Barr's Kinematics of Machinery 8vo, 

* Bartlett's Mechanical Drawing Svo, 

* " " " Abridged Ed , Svo, 

* Bartlett and Johnson's Engineering Descriptive Geometry Svo, 

Coolidge's Manual of Drawing Svo, paper, 

Coolidge and Freeman's Elements of General Drafting for Mechanical Engi- 
neers Oblong 4to, 

Durley's Kinematics of Machines Svo, 

Emch's Introduction to Projective Geometry and its Application Svo, 

Hill's Text-book on Shades and Shadows, and Perspective. ,. .. .Svo, 

Jamison's Advanced Mechanical Drawing Svo, 

Elements of Mechanical Drawing Svo, 

Jones's Machine Design: 

Part I. Kinematics of Machinery Svo, 

Part IL Form, Strength, and Proportions of Parts Svo, 

Kaup's Text-book on Machine Shop Practice. (In Press.) 

* Kimball and Barr's Machine Design Svo, 

MacCord's Elements of Descriptive Geometry Svo, 

Kinematics; or. Practical Mechanism Svo, 

Mechanical Drawing 4to, 

Velocity Diagrams Svo, 

McLeod's Descriptive Geometry Large 12mo, 

* Mahan's Descriptive Geometry and Stone-cutting Svo, 

Industrial Drawing. (Thompson.) Svo, 

Moyer's Descriptive Geometry Svo, 

Reed's Topographical Drawing and Sketching 4to, 

* Reid's Mechanical Drawing. (Elementary and Advanced.) Svo, 

Text-book of Mechanical Drawing and Elementary Machine Design. .Svo, 

Robinson's Principles of Mechanism Svo, 

Schwamb and Merrill's Elements of Mechanism Svo, 

Smith (A. W.) and Marx's Machine Design Svo, 

Smith's (R. S.) Manual of Topographical Drawing. (McMillan.) Svo, 

* Titsworth's Elements of Mechanical Drawing Oblong Svo, 

Warren's Drafting Instruments and Operations 12mo, 

Elements of Descriptive Geometry, Shadows, and Perspective Svo, 

Elements of Machine Construction and Drawing Svo, 

Elements of Plane and Solid Free-hand Geometrical Drawing. . . . 12mo, 

General Problems of Shades and Shadows Svo, 

Manual of Elementary Problems in the Linear Perspective of Forms and 

Shadow 12mo, 

Manual of Elementary Projection Drawing 12mo, 

Plane Problems in Elementary Geometry 12mo, 

Weisbach's Kinematics and Power of Transmission. (Hermann and 
Klein.) Svo, 

Wilson's (H. M.) Topographic Surveying Svo, 

* Wilson's (V. T.) Descriptive Geometry Svo, 

Free-hand Lettering Svo, 

Free-hand Perspective Svo, 

Woolf's Elementary Course in Descriptive Geometry Large Svo, 

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ELECTRICITY AND PHYSICS. 

* Abegg's Theory of Electrolytic Dissociation, (von Ende.l 12mo, $1 25 

Andrews's Hand-book for Street Railway Engineering 3X5 inches, mor. 1 25 

Anthony and Ball's Lecture-notes on the Theory of Electrical Measure- 
ments 12mo, 1 00 

Anthony and Brackett's Text-book of Physics. (Magie.) ... .Large 12mo, 3 00 

Benjamin's History of Electricity : 8vo, 3 00 

Betts's Lead Refining and Electrolysis 8vo, 4 00 

Clasjsn's Quantitative Chemical Analysis by Electrolysis. (BoItwood.).8vo, 3 00 

* Collins's Manual of Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony 12mo, 1 50 

Crehore and Squier's Polarizing Photo-chronograph Svo, 3 00 

* Danneel's Electrochemistry. (Merriam.) 12mo, 1 25 

Dawson's "Engineering" and Electric Traction Pocket-book. . . . 16mo, mor. 5 00 
Dolezalek's Theory of the Lead Accumulator (Storage Battery), (von Ende.) 

12mo, 2 50 

Duhem's Thermodynamics and Chemistry. (Burgess.) Svo, 4 00 

Flather's Dynamometers, and the Measurement of Power 12mo, 3 00 

* Getman's Introduction to Physical Science 12mo, 1 50 

Gilbert's De Magnete. (Mottelay ) Svo, 2 50 

* Hanchett's Alternating Currents 12mo, 1 00 

Hering's Ready Reference Tables (Conversion Factors) IGmo, mor. 2 50 

* Hobart and Ellis's High-speed Dynamo Electric Machinery Svo, 6 00 

Holman's Precision of Measurements Svo, 2 00 

Telescopic Mirror-scale Method, Adjustments, and Tests.. . .Large Svo, 75 
Hutchinson's High Efficiency Electrical Illuminants and Illumination. (In Press.) 
KarapetoflE's Experimental Electrical Engineering: 

* Vol. I Svo, 3 50 

* Vol. II. Svo, 2 50 

Kinzbrunner's Testing of Continuous-current Machines Svo, 2 00 

Landauer's Spectrum Analysis. (Tingle.) Svo, 3 00 

Le Chatelier's High-temperature Measurements. (Boudouard— Burgess.) 

12mo, 3 00 

Lob's Electrochemistry of Organic Compounds. (Lorenz.) Svo, 3 00 

* Lyndon's Development and Electrical Distribution of Water Power. .Svo, 3 00 

* Lyons's Treatise on Electromagnetic Phenomena. Vols, I .and II. Svo, each, 6 00 

* Michie's Elements of Wave Motion Relating to Sound and Light Svo, 4 00 

Morgan's Outline of the Theory of Solution and its Results 12mo, 1 00 

* Physical Chemistry for Electrical Engineers 12mo, 1 50 

* Norris's Introduction to the Study of Electrical Engineering Svo, 2 50 

Norris and Dennison's Course of Problems on the Electrical Characteristics of 

Circuits and Machines. (In Press.) 

* Parshall and Hobart's Electric Machine Design 4to, half mor, 12 50 

Reagan's Locomotives: Simple, Compound, and Electric. New Edition. 

Large 12mo, 3 50 

* Rosenberg's Electrical Engineering. (Haldane Gee — Kinzbrunner.) . .Svo, 2 00 

Ryan, Norris, and Hoxie's Electrical Machinery. Vol. I Svo, 2 50 

Schapper's Laboratory Guide for Students in Physical Chemistry 12mo, 1 GO 

* Tillman's Elementary Lessons in Heat Svo, 1 50 

* Timbie's Elements of Electricity Large 12mo, 2 00 

Tory and Pitcher's Manual of Laboratory Physics Large 12mo, 2 00 

Ulke's Modern Electrolytic Copper Refining Svo, 3 00 



LAW. 

* Brennan's Hand-book of Useful Legal Information for Business Men, 

16mo, mor. 5 00 

* Davis's Elements of Law Svo, 2 50 

* Treatise on the Military Law of United States Svo, 7 00 

* Dudley's Military Law and the Procedure of Courts-martial. .Large 12mo, 2 50 

Manual for Courts-martial 16mo, mor. 1 50 

Wait's Engineering and Architectural Jurisprudence Svo, 6 00 

Sheep. 6 50 

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Wait's Law of Contracts 8vo, $3 00 

Law of Operations Preliminary to Construction in Engineering and 

Architecture 8vo, 5 00 

Sheep. 5 50 

Baker's Elliptic Functions 8vo, 1 50 



MATHEMATICS. 

Briggs's Elements of Plane Analytic Geometry. (Bocher.) 12mo, 1 00 

* Buchanan's Plane and Spherical Trigonometry Svo, 1 00 

Byerly's Harmonic Functions Svo, 1 00 

Chandler's Elements of the Infinitesimal Calculus 12mo, 2 00 

* Coflfin's Vector Analysis 12mo, 2 50 

Compton's Manual of Logarithmic Computations 12mo, 1 50 

* Dickson's College Algebra Large 12mo, 1 50 

* Introduction to the Theory of Algebraic Equations Large 12mo, 1 25 

Emch's Introduction to- Projective Geometry and its Application Svo, 2 50 

Fiske's Functions of a Complex Variable Svo, 1 00 

Halsted's Elementary Synthetic Geometry Svo, 1 50 

Elements of Geometry Svo, 1 75 

* Rational Geometry 12mo, 1 50 

Synthetic Projective Geometry Svo, 1 00 

* Hancock's Lectures on the Theory of Elliptic Functions Svo, 5 00 

Hyde's Grassmann's Space Analysis : Svo, 1 00 

* Johnson's (J. B.) Three-place Logarithmic Tables : Vest-pocket size, paper, 15 

* 100 copies, 5 00 

* Mounted on heavy cardboard, S X 10 inches, . 25 

* 10 copies, 2 00 
Johnson's (W. W.) Abridged Editions of Differential and Integral Calculus. 

Large 12mo, 1 vol. 2 50 

Curve Tracing in Cartesian Co-ordinates 12mo, 1 00 

Differential Equations Svo, 1 00 

Elementary Treatise on Differential Calculus Large 12mo, 1 60 

Elementary Treatise on the Integral Calculus Large 12mo, 1 50 

* Theoretical Mechanics . . . 12mo, 3 00 

Theory of Errors and the Method of Least Squares 12mo, 1 50 

Treatise on Differential Calculus : Large 12mo, 3 00 

Treatise on the Integral Calculus Large 12mo, 3 00 

Treatise on Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations. . .Large 12mo, 3 50 

Karapetoff's Engineering Applications of Higher Mathematics. (In Preparation.) 

Laplace's Philosophical Essay on Probabilities. (Truscott and Emory.) . 12mo, 2 00 

* Ludlow's Logarithmic and Trigonometric Tables Svo, 1 00 

* Ludlow and Bass's Elements of Trigonometry and Logarithmic and Other 

Tables Svo, 3 00 

* Trigonometry and Tables published separately Each, 2 00 

Macfarlane's Vector Analysis and Quaternions Svo, 1 00 

McMahon's Hyperbolic Functions .Svo, 1 00 

Manning's Irrational Numbers and their Representation by Sequences and 

Series 12mo. 1 25 

Mathematical Monographs. Edited by Mansfield Merriman and Robert 

S. Woodward Octavo, each 1 00 

No. 1. History of Modern M'&thematics, by David Eugene Smith. 
No. 2. Synthetic Projective Geometry, by George Bruce Halsted. 
No. 3. Determinants, by Laenas Gifford Weld. No. 4. Hyper- 
bolic Functions, by James McMahon. No. 5. Harmonic Func- 
tions, by William E. Byerly. No. 6. Grassmann's Space Analysis, 
by Edward W. Hyde. No. 7. Probability and Theory of Errors, 
by Robert S. Woodward. No. S. Vector Analysis and Quaternions, 
by Alexander Macfarlane. No. 9. Differential Equations, by 
William Woolsey Johnson. No. 10. The Solution of Equations, 
by Mansfield Merriman. No. 11. Functions of a Complex Variable, 
by Thomas S. Fiske. 

Maurer's Technical Mechanics Svo, 4 00 

Merriman's Method of Least Squares Svo, 2 00 

Solution of Equations Svo, 1 GO 

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Moritz's Elements of Plane Trigonometry. (In Press.) 

Rice and Johnson's Differential and Integral Calculus. 2 vols, in one. 

Large 12mo, $1 50 

Elementary Treatise on the Differential Calculus Large 12mo, 3 00 

Smith's History of Modem Mathematics 8vo, 1 00 

* Veblen and Lennes's Introduction to the Real Infinitesimal Analysis of One 

Variable 8vo, 2 00 

* Waterbury's Vest Pocket Hand-book of Mathematics for Engineers. 

2i X 51 inches, mor. 1 00 

* Enlarged Edition, Including Tables mor. 1 50 

Weld's Determinants 8vo, 1 00 

Wood's Elements of Co-ordinate Geometry Svo, 2 00 

Woodward's Probability and Theory of Errors Svo, 1 00 



MECHANICAL ENGINEERING. 

MATERIALS OP ENGINEERING. STEAM-ENGINES AND BOILERS. 

Bacon's Forge Practice 12mo, 

Baldwin's Steam Heating for Buildings 12mo, 

Barr's Kinematics of Machinery Svo, 

* Bartlett's Mechanical Drawing Svo, 

* " " " Abridged Ed Svo, 

* Bartlett and Johnson's Engineering Descriptive Geometry Svo, 

* Burr's Ancient and Modem Engineering and the Isthmian Canal Svo, 

Carpenter's Experimental Engineering Svo, 

Heating and Ventilating Buildings Svo, 

* Clerk's The Gas, Petrol and Oil Engine Svo, 

Compton's First Lessons in Metal Working 12mo, 

Compton and De Groodt's Speed Lathe 12mo, 

Coolidge's Manual of Drawing Svo, paper, 

Coolidge and Freeman's Elements of General Drafting for Mechanical En- 
gineers Oblong 4to, 

Cromwell's Treatise on Belts and Pulleys 12mo, 

Treatise on Toothed Gearing 12mo, 

Dingey's Machinery Pattern Making 12mo, 

Durley 's Kinematics of Machines Svo, 

Flanders's Gear-cutting Machinery Large 12mo, 

Flather's Dynamometers and the Measurement of Power 12mo, 

Rope Driving , 12mo, 

Gill's Gas and Fuel Analysis for Engineers 12mo, 

Goss's Locomotive Sparks Svo, 

Greene's Pumping Machinery. (In Preparation.) 

Hering's Ready Reference Tables (Conversion Factors) 16mo, mor. 

* Hobart and ElUs's High Speed Dynamo Electric Machinery Svo, 

Hutton's Gas Engine Svo, 

Jamison's Advanced Mechanical Drawing Svo, 

Elements of Mechanical Drawing Svo, 

Jones's Gas Engine Svo, 

Machine Design: 

Part I. Kinematics of Machinery Svo. 

Part II. Form. Strength, and Proportions of Parts Svo, 

Kaup's Text-book on Machine Shop Practice. (In Press.) 

* Kent's Mechanical Engineer's Pocket-Book 16mo. mor. 

Kerr's Power and Power Transmission Svo. 

* Kimball and Barr's Machine Design Svo, 

Leonard's Machine Shop Tools and Methods Svo, 

* Levin's Gas Engine Svo, 

* Lorenz's Modern Refrigerating Machinery. (Pope, Haven, and Dean). .Svo, 
MacCord's Kinematics; or. Practical Mechanism Svo, 

Mechanical Drawing 4to, 

Velocity Diagrams Svo, 

MacFarland's Standard Reduction Factors for Gases Svo, 

Mahan's Industrial Drawing. (Thompson.) Svo, 

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Mehrtens's Gas Engine Theory and Design Large 12mo, $2 50 

Oberg's Handbook of Small Tools Large 12mo, 2 50 

* Parshall and Hobart's Electric Machine Design. Small 4to, half leather, 12 50 

* Peele's Compressed Air Plant for Mines. Second Edition, Revised and En- 

larged = 8vo, 3 50 

Poole's Calorific Power of Fuels 8vo, 3 00 

* Porter's Engineering Reminiscences, 1855 to 1882 8vo, 3 00 

* Reid's Mechanical Drawing. (Elementary and Advanced.) 8vo, 2 00 

Text-book of Mechanical Drawing and Elementary Machine Design. 8vo, 3 00 

Richards's Compressed Air 12mo, 1 50 

Robinson's Principles of Mechanism 8vo, 3 00 

Schwamb and Merrill's Elements of Mechanism 8vo, 3 00 

Smith (A. W.) and Marx's Machine Design 8vo, 3 00 

Smith's (O.) Press-working of Metals 8vo, 3 00 

Sorel's Carbureting and Combustion in Alcohol Engines. (Woodward and 

Preston.) Large 12mo, 3 00 

Stone's Practical Testing of Gas and Gas Meters 8vo, 3 50 

Thurston's Animal as a Machine and Prime Motor, and the Laws of Energetics. 

12mo, 1 00 

Treatise on Friction and Lost "Work in Machinery and Mill Work. . .8vo, 3 00 

* Tillson's Complete Automobile Instructor 16mo, 1 50 

* Titsworth's Elements of Mechanical Drawing Oblong 8vo, 1 25 

Warren's Elements of Machine Construction and Drawing 8vo, 7 50 

* Waterbury's Vest Pocket Hand-book of Mathematics for Engineers. 

21 X5| inches, mor. 100 

* Enlarged Edition, Including Tables mor. 1 50 

Weisbach's Kinematics and the Power of Transmission. (Herrmann — 

Klein.) 8vo, 5 00 

Machinery of Transmission and Governors. (Hermann — Klein.) . .8vo, 5 00 

Wood's Turbines 8vo, 2 50 



MATERIALS OF ENGINEERING. 

* Bovey's Strength of Materials and Theory of Structures 8vo, 

Burr's Elasticity and Resistance of the Materials of Engineering 8vo, 

Church's Mechanics of Engineering 8vo, 

* Greene's Structural Mechanics Svo, 

* HoUey's Lead and Zinc Pigments Large 12mo 

HoUey and Ladd's Analysis of Mixed Paints, Color Pigments, and Varnishes. 

Large 12mo, 
Johnson's (C. M.) Rapid Methods for the Chemical Analysis of Special 

Steels, Steel-Making Alloys and Graphite Large 12mo, 

Johnson's (J. B.) Materials of Construction Svo, 

Keep's Cast Iron 8vo, 

Lanza's Applied Mechanics 8vo, 

Lowe's Paints for Steel Structures 12mo, 

Maire's Modern Pigments and their Vehicles 12mo, 

Maurer's Technical Mechanics Svo, 

Merriman's Mechanics of Materials Svo, 

* Strength of Materials. . 12mo, 

Metcalf's Steel. A Manual for Steel-users 12mo, 

Sabin's Industrial and Artistic Technology of Paint and Varnish Svo, 

Smith's ((A. W.) Materials of Machines 12mo, 

* Smith's (H. E.) Strength of Material , 12mo, 

Thurston's Materials of Engineering 3 vols., Svo, 

Part I. Non-metallic Materials of Engineering, 8vc, 

Part II. Iron and Steel Svo, 

Part III. A Treatise on Brasses, Bronzes, and Other Alloys and their 

Constituents Svo, 

Wood's (De V.) Elements of Analytical Mechanics Svo, 

Treatise on the Resistance of Materials and an Appendix on the 

Preservation of Timber Svo, 2 00 

Wood's (M. P.) Rustless Coatings: Corrosion and Electrolysis of Iron and 

Steel Svo, 4 00 

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STEAM-ENGINES AND BOILERS. 

Berry's Temperature-entropy Diagram 12mo, $2 00 

Camot's Reflections on the Motive Power of Heat. (Thurston.) 12mo, 1 50 

Chase's Art of Pattern Making 12mo, 2 50 

Creighton's Steam-engine and other Heat Motors 8vo, 5 00 

Dawson's "Engineering" and Electric Traction Pocket-book. .. . l6mo, mor. 5 00 

* Gebhardt's Steam Power Plant Engineering 8vo, 6 00 

Goss's Locomotive Performance 8vo, 5 00 

Hemenway's Indicator Practice and Steam-engine Economy 12mo, 2 00 

Hutton's Heat and Heat-engines Svo, 5 00 

Mechanical Engineering of Power Plants Svo, 5 00 

Kent's Steam Boiler Economy^. Svo, 4 00 

Kneass's Practice and Theory of the Injector Svo, 1 50 

MacCord's Slide-valves Svo, 2 00 

Meyer's Modern Locomotive Construction 4to, 10 00 

Moyer's Steam Turbine Svo, 4 00 

Peabody's Manual of the Steam-engine Indicator 12mo, 1 50 

Tables of the Properties of Steam and Other Vapors and Temperature- 
Entropy Table Svo, 1 00 

Thermodynamics of the Steam-engine and Other Heat-engines. . . .Svo, 5 00 

Valve-gears for Steam-engines Svo, 2 50 

Peabody and Miller's Steam-boilers Svo, 4 00 

Pupin's Thermodynamics of Reversible Cycles in Gases and Saturated Vapors. 

(Osterberg.) 12mo. 1 25 

Reagan's Locomotives: Simple, Compound, and Electric. New Edition. 

Large 12mo, 3 50 

Sinclair's Locomotive Engine Running and Management 12mo, 2 00 

Smart's Handbook of Engineering Laboratory Practice 12mo, 2 50 

Snow's Steam-boiler Practice Svo, 3 00 

Spangler's Notes on Thermodynamics 12mo, 1 00 

Valve-gears Svo, 2 50 

Spangler, Greene, and Marshall's Elements of Steam-engineering Svo, 3 00 

Thomas's Steam-turbines Svo, 4 00 

Thurston's Handbook of Engine and Boiler Trials, and the Use of the Indi- 
cator and the Prony Brake Svo, 5 00 

Handy Tables Svo, 1 50 

Manual of Steam-boilers, their Designs, Construction, and Operation Svo, 5 00 

Manual of the Steam-engine 2 vols., Svo, 10 00 

Part I. History, Structure, and Theory Svo, 6 00 

Part II. Design, Construction, and Operation Svo, 6 00 

Wehrenfennig's Analysis and Softening of Boiler Feed-water. (Patterson.) 

Svo, 4 00 

Weisbach's Heat, Steam, and Steam-engines. (Du Bois.) Svo, 5 00 

Whitham's Steam-engine Design Svo, 5 00 

Wood's Thermodynamics, Heat Motors, and Refrigerating Machines. . .8vo, 4 00 



MECHANICS PURE AND APPLIED. 

Church's Mechanics of Engineering Svo, 

* Mechanics of Internal Works Svo, 

Notes and Examples in Mechanics Svo, 

Dana's Text-book of Elementary Mechanics for Colleges and Schools .12mo, 
Du Bois's Elementary Principles of Mechanics: 

Vol. I. Kinematics Svo, 

Vol. II. Statics Svo. 

Mechanics of Engineering. Vol. I Small 4to, 

Vol. II ....Small 4to, 

* Greene's Structural Mechanics Svo, 

* Hartmann's Elementary Mechanics for Engineering Students 12mo, 

James's Kinematics of a Point and the Rational Mechanics of a Particle. 

Large 12mo. 

* Johnson's (W. W.) Theoretical Mechanics 12mo, 

Lanza's Applied Mechanics Svo, 

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* Martin's Text Book on Mechanics, Vol. I, Statics 12mo, $1 25 

* Vol. II, Kinematics and Kinetics. 12mo, 1 50 

Maurer's Technical Mechanics 8vo, 4 00 

* Merriman's Elements of Mechanics 12mo, 1 00 

Mechanics of Materials 8vo, 5 00 

* Michie's Elements of Analytical Mechanics 8vo, 4 00 

Robinson's Principles of Mechanism Svo, 3 00 

Sanborn's Mechanics Problems Large 12mo, 1 50 

Schwamb and Merrill's Elements of Mechanism Svo, 3 00 

Wood's Elements of Analytical Mechanics Svo, 3 00 

Principles of Elementary Mechanics 12mo, 1 25 



MEDICAL. 

* Abderhalden's Physiological Chemistry in Thirty Lectures. (Hall and 

Defren.) Svo, 5 00 

von Behring's Suppression of Tuberculosis. (Bolduan.) •. 12mo, 1 00 

Bolduan's Immune Sera 12mo, 1 50 

Bordet's Studies in Immunity. (Gay.) Svo, 6 00 

* Chapin's The Sources and Modes of Infection Large 12mo, 3 00 

Davenport's Statistical Methods with Special Reference to Biological Varia- 
tions 16mo, mor. 1 50 

Ehrlich's Collected Studies on Immunity. (Bolduan.) Svo, 6 00 

* Fischer's Oedema Svo, 2 00 

* Physiology of Alimentation Large 12mo, 2 00 

de Fursac's Manual of Psychiatry. (Rosanofi and Collins.).. . .Large 12mo, 2 50 

Hammarsten's Text-book on Physiological Chemistry. (Mandel.) Svo, 4 00 

Jackson's Directions for Laboratory Work in Physiological Chemistry. .Svo, 1 25 

Lassar-Cohn's Praxis of Urinary Analysis. (Lorenz.) 12mo, 1 00 

Mandel's Hand-book for the Bio-Chemical Laboratory 12mo. 1 50 

* Nelson's Analysis of Drugs and Medicines l2mo, 3 00 

* Pauli's Physical Chemistry in the Service of Medicine. (Fischer.) ..12mo, 1 25 

* Pozzi-Escot's Toxins and Venoms and their Antibodies. (Cohn.). . 12mo, 1 00 

Rostoski's Serum Diagnosis. (Bolduan.) 12mo, 1 00 

Ruddiman's Incompatibilities in Prescriptions Svo, 2 00 

Whys in Pharmacy 12mo, 1 00 

Salkowski's Physiological and Pathological Chemistry. (Orndorff.) ....Svo, 2 50 

* Satterlee's Outlines of Human Embryology 12mo, 1 25 

Smith's Lecture Notes on Chemistry for Dental Students Svo, 2 50 

* Whipple's Tyhpoid Fever Large 12mo, 3 00 

* WoodhuU's Military Hygiene for Officers of the Line Large 12mo, 1 50 

* Personal Hygiene 12mo, 1 00 

Worcester and Atkinson's Small Hospitals Establishment and Maintenance, 

and Suggestions for Hospital Architecture, with Plans for a Small 
Hospital 12mo, 1 25 

METALLURGY. 

Betts's Lead Refining by Electrolysis Svo, 4 00 

BoUand's Encyclopedia of Founding and Dictionary of Foundry Terms used 

in the Practice of Moulding 12mo, 

Iron Founder 12mo, 

" " Supplement 12mo, 

Borchers's Metallurgy. (Hall and Hayward.) (In Press.) 

Douglas's Untechnical Addresses on Technical Subjects 12mo, 

Goesel's Minerals and Metals: A Reference Book 16mo, mor. 

* Iles's Lead-smelting 12mo, 

Johnson's Rapid Methods for the Chemical Analysis of Special Steels, 

Steel-making Alloys and Graphite Large 12mo, 

Keep's Cast Iron Svo, 

Le Chatelier's High- temperature Measurements. (Boudouard— Burgess.) 

12mo, 

Metcalf's Steel. A Manual for Steel-users 12mo, 

Minet's Production of Aluminum and its Industrial Use. (Waldo.). . 12mo, 

* Ruer's Elements of Metallography. (Mathewson.) Svo, 

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Smith's Materials of Machines 12mo, $1 00 

Tate and Stone's Foundry Practice 12mo, 2 00 

Thurston's Materials of Engineering. In Three Parts 8vo, 8 00 

Part I. Non-metallic Materials of Engineering, see Civil Engineering, 
page 9. 

Part II. Iron and Steel 8vo, 3 50 

Part III. A Treatise on Brasses, Bronzes, and Other Alloys and their 

Constituents 8vo, 2 50 

Ulke's Modern Electrolytic Copper Refining 8vo, 3 00 

"West's American Foundry Practice 12mo, 2 50 

Moulders' Text Book 12mo. 2 50 



MINERALOGY. 

Baskerville's Chemical Elements. (In Preparation.) 

* Browning's Introduction to the Rarer Elements 8vo, 1 50 

Brush's Manual of Determinative Mineralogy. (Penfield.) 8vo, 4 00 

Butler's Pocket Hand-book of Minerals 16mo, mor. 3 00 

Chester's Catalogue of Minerals 8vo, paper, 1 00 

Cloth, 1 25 

* Crane's Gold and Silver " 8vo, 5 00 

Dana's First Appendix to Dana's New "System of Mineralogy". .Large 8vo, 1 00 
Dana's Second Appendix to Dana's New "System of Mineralogy." 

Large 8vo, 1 50 

Manual of Mineralogy and Petrography 12mo, 2 00 

Minerals and How to Study Them 12mo, 1 50 

System of Mineralogy Large 8vo, half leathor, 12 50 

Text-book of Mineralogy 8vo, 4 00 

Douglas's Untechnical Addresses on Technical Subjects 12mo, 1 00 

Eakle's Mineral Tables 8vo, 1 25 

Eckel's Stone and Clay Products Used in Engineering. (In Preparation.) 

Goesel's Minerals and Metals: A Reference Book 16mo, mor. 3 00 

Groth's The Optical Properties of Crystals. (Jackson.) (In Press.) 

Groth's Introduction to Chemical Crystallography (Marshall) 12mo, 1 25 

* Hayes's Handbook for Field Geologists ,16mo, mor. 1 50 

Iddings's Igneous Rocks 8vo, 5 00 

Rock Minerals 8vo, 5 00 

Johannsen's Determination of Rock-forming Minerals in Thin Sections. 8vo, 

With Thumb Index 5 00 

* Martin's Laboratory Guide to Qualitative Analysis with the Blow- 

pipe 12mo, 60 

Merrill's Non-metallic Minerals: Their Occurrence and Uses 8vo, 4 00 

Stones for Building and Decoration 8vo, 5 00 

* Penfield's Notes on Determinative Mineralogy and Record of Mineral Tests. 

8vo, paper, 50 
Tables of Minerals, Including the Use of Minerals and Statistics of 

Domestic Production Svo, 1 00 

* Pirsson's Rocks and Rock Minerals 12mo, 2 50 

* Richards's Synopsis of Mineral Characters 12mo, mor. 1 25 

* Ries's Clays: Their Occurrence, Properties and Uses Svo, 5 00 

* Ries and Leighton's History of the Clay-working Industry of the United 

States Svo, 2 50 

Rowe's Practical Mineralogy Simplified. (In Press.) 

* Tillman's Text-book of Important Minerals and Rocks Svo, 2 00 

Washington's Manual of the Chemical Analysis of Rocks Svo. 2 00 



MINING. 

* Beard's Mine Gases and Explosions Large 12mo, 3 00 

♦ Crane's Gold and Silver Svo, 5 00 

* Index of Mining Engineering Literature Svo, 4 00 

* Svo, mor. 5 00 

* Ore Mining Methods Svo. 3 00 

Douglas's Untechnical Addresses on Technical Subjects 12mo, 1 00 

Eissler's Modern High Explosives Svo, 4 00 

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Goesel's Minerals and Metals: A Reference Book 16mo, mor. $3 00 

Ihlseng's Manual of Mining 8vo, 5 00 

* Iles's Lead Smelting 12mo, 2 00 

Peele's Compressed Air Plant for Mines 8vo, 3 00 

Riemer's Shaft Sinking Under Difficult Conditions. (Corning and Peele.)8vo, 3 00 

* Weaver's Military Explosives 8vo, 3 00 

Wilson's Hydraulic and Placer Mining. 2d edition, rewritten 12mo, 2 50 

Treatise on Practical and Theoretical Mine Ventilation 12mo, 1 25 



SANITARY SCIENCE. 

Association of State and National Food and Dairy Departments, Hartford 

Meeting, 1906 8vo, 

Jamestown Meeting, 1907 8vo, 

* Bashore's Outlines of Practical Sanitation 12mo, 

Sanitation of a Country House 12mo, 

Sanitation of Recreation Camps and Parks 12mo, 

* Chapin's The Sources and Modes of Infection Large 12mo, 

Folwell's Sewerage. (Designing, Construction, and Maintenance.) 8vo, 

Water-supply Engineering 8vo, 

Fowler's Sewage Works Analyses 12mo, 

Fuertes's Water-filtration Works 12mo, 

Water and Public Health 12mo, 

Gerhard's Guide to Sanitary Inspections 12mo, 

* Modern Baths and Bath Houses 8vo, 

Sanitation of Public Buildings 12mo, 

* The Water Supply, Sewerage, and Plumbing of Modem City Buildings. 

8vo, 

Hazen's Clean Water and How to Get It Large 12mo, 

Filtration of Public Water-supplies 8vo, 

* Kinnicutt, Winslow and Pratt's Sewage Disposal 8vo, 

Leach's Inspection and Analysis of Food with Special Reference to State 

Control 8vo, 

Mason's Examination of Water. (Chemical and Bacteriological). .... 12mo, 
Water-supply. (Considered principally from a Sanitary Standpoint). 

8vo, 
Mast's Light and the Behavior of Organisms. (In Press.) 

* Merriman's Elements of Sanitary Engineering 8vo, 

Ogden's Sewer Construction 8vo, 

Sewer Design 12mo, 

Parsons's Disposal of Municipal Refuse 8vo, 

Prescott and Winslow's Elements of Water Bacteriology, with Special Refer- 
ence to Sanitary Water Analysis 12mo, 

* Price's Handbook on Sanitation 12mo, 

Richards's Conservation by Sanitation. (In Press.) 

Cost of Cleanness 12mo, 

Cost of Food. A Study in Dietaries 12mo, 

Cost of Living as Modified by Sanitary Science 12mo, 

Cost of Shelter 12mo, 

* Richards and Williams's Dietary Computer 8vo, 

Richards and Woodman's Air, Water, and Food from a Sanitary Stand- 
point 8vo, 

* Richey's Plumbers', Steam-fitters', and Tinners' Edition (Building 

Mechanics' Ready Reference Series) 16mo, mor. 

Rideal's Disinfection and the Preservation of Food 8vo, 

Sewage and Bacterial Purification of Sewage 8vo, 

Soper's Air and Ventilation of Subways 12mo, 

Turneaure and Russell's Public Water-supplies 8vo, 

Venable's Garbage Crematories in America 8vo, 

Method and Devices for Bacterial Treatment of Sewage 8vo, 

Ward and Whipple's Freshwater Biology. (In Press.) 

Whipple's Microscopy of Drinking-water 8vo, 

* Typhoid Fever . Large 12mo, 

Value of Pure Water Large 12mo, 

Winslow's Systematic Relationship of the Coccaceae Large 12mo, 

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MISCELLANEOUS. 

Emmons's Geological Guide-book of the Rocky Mountain Excursion of the 

International Congress of Geologists Large 8vo. $1 50 

Ferrel's Pooular Treatise on the Winds 8vo, 4 00 

Fitzgerald's Boston Machinist 18mo, 1 00 

Gannett's Statistical Abstract of the World 24mo, 75 

Haines's American Railway Management 12mo, 2 50 

Hanausek's The Microscopy of Technical Products. (Winton) Svo, 5 00 

Jacobs's Betterment Briefs. A Collection of Published Papers on Or- 
ganized Industrial Efficiency Svo, 3 50 

Metcalfe's Cost of Manufactures, and the Administration of Workshops.. Svo, 5 00 

Putnam's Nautical Charts Svo, 2 00 

Ricketts's History of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 1824-1894. 

Large 12mo, 3 00 

Rotherham's Emphasised New Testament Large Svo, 2 00 

Rust's Ex-Meridian Altitude, Azimuth and Star-finding Tables.. Svo 5 00 

Standage's Decoration of Wood, Glass, Metal, etc 12mo 2 00 

Thome's Structural and Physiological Botany. (Bennett) 16mo, 2 25 

Westermaier's Compendium of General Botany. (Schneider) Svo, 2 00 

Winslow's Elements of Applied Microscopy. . . . .' 12mo, 1 50 



HEBREW AND CHALDEE TEXT-BOOKS. 

Gesenius's Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament Scriptures. 

(Tregelles.) Small 4to, half mor, 5 00 

Green's Elementary Hebrew Grammar 12mo, 1 25 



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